The human heart is amazing. Consider
the numbers: Healthy hearts beat 60-100 times a minute. If someone’s normal
resting heart rate is 75, that means it beats 4,500 times in an hour, and 108,000
times during the course of 24 hours. Over an entire year that heart beats
nearly 40 million times, and over a 70-year lifetime, that’s close to three
billion heartbeats!
Can you imagine a car engine
running non-stop for 70 years, or longer? It doesn’t happen. The heart is one
of the marvels of the human body, especially because if the heart stops, so
does life. Every year about this time I have special reason to reflect on these
facts. Nearly 11 years ago (Dec. 20, 2006), I was lying on an operating table, chest
splayed open while a surgical team performed multiple bypasses and built a new
ascending aorta for me.
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| My "heart pillow" remains a treasured souvenir. |
They in fact did stop my heart
for a half-hour or so while the repairs were being made, attaching me to a
heart-lung machine in the meantime. So, it got a brief respite. But ever since,
it’s been beating non-stop about 440 million times.
I’m extremely grateful for those
11 additional years – and for whatever time still lies ahead for me in this
life. Over that span I’ve added two sons-in-law, four grandchildren (with another
expected in January) and three great-grandkids. Professionally I’ve had the
opportunity to write and edit a number of books and articles, and even to start
this blog. God has also given me the privilege of meeting with a number of men
in mentoring relationships, providing mutual encouragement and accountability for our journey with
Jesus Christ.
To borrow the title of my
favorite Christmas film, it’s been – and continues to be – a wonderful life,
even in the midst of inevitable challenges. Jesus said of His “sheep” – His followers
– “I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Thanks to medical technology, a very
skillful surgeon, and God’s grace, I’ve already had more than a decade to
experience that abundant life He promised.
The Bible says much about the
heart, although not necessarily in the ever-beating muscle in the chest sense. The
book of Proverbs, for instance, comments often on “the heart.”
Proverbs 4:23 tells us to “guard your heart, for
everything you do flows from it.”
Then we read, “In his
heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps” (Proverbs
16:9). Later we read, “All a man’s ways
seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart” (Proverbs 21:2).
Acts 13:22 recounts God’s description of David, who became
king of Israel, as “a man after my own
heart.” Jesus spoke often about the heart, saying such things as, “For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). And, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart…. For
out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, immorality, theft…” (Matthew
15:18-19).
Without question, these uses of the term “heart” refer to our
motives and desires. But even though I can’t prove it, I believe there’s a spiritual
component to the physical heart.
I remember the years following my surgery when I
visited people in the hospital who had just undergone open-heart surgery. I
went to encourage them by sharing my own story, seeking to “comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received
from God” (2 Corinthians 1:4). It was not uncommon to see even macho-looking
men well up with tears as they pondered their recent surgery and how God had chosen
to extend their lives. No question, it’s a humbling experience.
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