For months Congress has been designing, discussing, debating, and usually disagreeing over various versions of a Health Care Reform Bill. Passion, almost to a fault, emerged from both sides of the political aisle on this sensitive topic. There was obvious disagreement over the best way to ascend this difficult mountain. In the meantime benchmarks and deadlines have come and gone.

But then on Nov. 7, 2009, H.R. 3962—the Affordable Health Care for America Act—was narrowly passed in the House of Representatives. The bill itself is 1,990 pages long. You can download it. After glancing at it a bit, I soon discovered the bill is actually thousands of pages long when one considers all the other bills and documents it references.

Early estimates indicate H.R. 3962 will cost hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade. Proponents retort that it will cover 36 million uninsured Americans.

At the time of this writing, the Senate had not yet passed a Health Care Bill.

With health care costs escalating, a stay in the hospital for a simple surgery or injury can quickly turns into thousands of dollars. Even most of those who possess insurance agree that something needs to be done in the area of health care reform. But the question that lurks in the minds of many is, "What is health care reform going to cost me?"

As Americans we should be concerned about health care reform. As Christians, however, we should be even more concerned about spiritual health care reform. A quick glance at the spiritual state of families in our nation prompts a loud cry for reform. Broken homes, sex before marriage, abortion, materialism, humanism—the list is long. The congregations of our church body certainly are not immune to these problems. We sometimes wonder what the future holds for our children and grandchildren especially when many in our nation no longer agree on what con-stitutes marriage.

Unlike H.R. 3962, spiritual health care reform is not rocket science or a long complicated process. It is simply recognizing and confessing that God does have standards that must be followed. By nature all human hearts are clogged with the plaque of wickedness. The cancer of sin permeates our bodies. Drastic surgery is needed, and aggressive treatment is required. If no action is taken, the end results will be tragic and eternal.

We quickly find ourselves asking, "What is it going to cost to fix these spiritual problems?" Congress can't do it. Billions or even trillions of dollars won't come close. We can't mend it. We are spiritually bankrupt.

But no debate is needed over how to tackle this problem. Our heavenly Father knew there was only one solution. Even before the world began, his passion for us consumed him to implement that plan.