The blessing of Favor

 In my last post, I described a little bit of an ongoing struggle with the DMV here in Oregon.  It's not the only one I've faced.  I've been trying since I moved here to straighten out my healthcare with the VA here in Oregon.  The VA Hospital is in Roseburg.  There is a clinic here in North Bend but it, like many other healthcare providers, is not accepting new patients.  Trying to get things fixed so I have the right authorization so I can get the billing straight and get my prescriptions filled has been a challenge.

On Sunday, I started asking for God's favor over the situations I had to deal with this week and listening to the prompting of the Spirit, to deal with one on one day, and one the next.

To show you the struggle is real with the DMV here in Oregon, I need to explain how I finally got an answer to my problem.  The DMV office opens at 8 a.m.  I called at, I think, 8:04 a.m.  I was on hold for 47 minutes before I got to talk to a person and when I did, he explained to me that the letter I got was just boilerplate and they can't take some of the stuff out of the letter because of the format of the template.  Although there is no exact address to mail the letter to other than the general address for the DMV in Salem (like a mail stop or a specific PO box address), they wouldn't send my transaction back in 30 days.  It might take another 4 months to get plates for the RAV but someone will eventually open my application and see a copy of the letter I received from them so they'll know what to do with it.  I asked for a little bit of favor, and found it in someone on the other end of the phone who was prepared to answer my question and explain to me that I won't get pulled over for the expired Utah tags.

That might not seem like favor, but when you've been in the dark for four months, wondering whether or not they even got the paperwork, favor looks like answers, even with the delay.

A couple of weeks ago, I called my Dr.'s office and asked them to send the VA a form and to call me back when they did.  Nobody called me.  On the same day, I also called the clinic's billing office to try and get the bill paid from December when I went there the first time.  Again, I asked for a call back and nobody called me back.  I get that things are a mess from COVID but sometimes being in the dark is frustrating.

Today I'd planned on making a personal visit to the clinic, but kind of felt prompted by the Spirit to call and check with the VA before I went.  I'm glad I did because they in fact, received and approved my continuation of community care request from the doctor.  I just had to make an appointment and then call them and tell them what day the appointment was.  I will be following up with them next week before I go to the appointment to make sure it got to TriWest, which didn't happen the last time.  Favor with the VA is a blessing.

Favor with the doctor's office looked like this:  I explained the situation to the receptionist at the doctor's office and she shoehorned me into an opening at the end of the month that just "happened" to be available.  Favor with the clinic looked like finding out the billing office is working on the issue and has a plan to resolve it with one insurer or the other.  

I didn't know because I didn't receive callbacks.  But the calls I made were acted upon and it was a pleasant surprise to hear that the issues are almost resolved.  

I can look back at many moments in life where things happened that I can see now, were instances where God's favor rested on me.  More and more, I know it was His favor that helped me get into this house and I'm certain I'm right where I need to be.

Grateful today for His favor on these things in my life.  It's amazing to me that my God is so big that He can help me with even the mundane issues of my life.