Matters of the heart . . .

This has been a weird couple of weeks. For a few years, medications have controlled my heart to keep it from going into A-fib, but for reasons unknown, the palpitations started again. I called the local heart clinic and was dismayed that the nurse on the other end of the phone ‘diagnosed’ my situation over the phone. She told me what she thought was needed, a ‘solution’ directed toward a symptom. I complied, but was not surprised that it didn’t work.

A few days later, I dug out our stethoscope. My heart beat was very erratic, an extreme not felt in my pulse. We went to the ER. Fearing blood clots, they wouldn’t do anything so put me on a blood thinner for 3-4 weeks.

From that nurse to the twelve people who saw me in the ER, all information was conflicting and confusing. Today, I looked online for clarity. Sites like the Mayo clinic tell far more than the average medical person will tell a patient. I wanted some answers, but didn’t want to self-diagnose my physical situation. Just as I need the experts for that, I also need God’s expertise to accurately pin-point my spiritual condition. Today they seemed to be crashing into one another.  

Paul had lots of trials, perhaps including some unnamed physical condition. He wrote what God was showing him during those troublesome times. While most people would see these things as something the devil was doing to ruin them, but this man saw his situation as something God was allowing for a very good reason . . .

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:8–11)

His afflictions were manifesting the life of Christ who dwelt in him. This is a witness to the power of God in taking care of His people.

I’m somewhat convicted by this. I became angry at the ‘one size fits all’ diagnosis of the nurse I’d talked to a couple weeks ago. She called again, this time wanting to increase one medication. She wanted my permission to phone the doctor to get authorization. Yikes. The doctor had not seen or talked to me. He had no idea whether this particular irregularity warranted more meds or would go away by itself.

My anger may have been justified. It didn’t seem wise to meekly accept a telephone diagnosis,  yet I’m not sure I was speaking at the Spirit’s leading or in His power.

Chambers emphasizes that Christians are to manifest the life of the Son of God in our daily lives. He says the disagreeable things particularly bring out whether or not we are manifesting His life. I agree. I also believe that even though Jesus was not always meek and mild, I am called to obey Him, even during irritations and the questionable behavior of others.

This time, I’m not sure I was even listening, never mind obeying. My reaction to this nurse did not seem to call attention to Jesus at all, or glorify Him.

Chambers says, “Our circumstances are the means of manifesting how wonderfully perfect and extraordinarily pure the Son of God is. The thing that ought to make the heart beat is a new way of manifesting the Son of God. It is one thing to choose the disagreeable, and another thing to go into the disagreeable by God’s engineering. If God puts you there, He is amply sufficient.”

His choice of words about making the heart beat in a new way seemed like finger-pointing. It also reminds me of this verse . . .

My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:26)

It is a fact of life that eventually and for whatever reason, the human heart will fail. However, God is my strength. He controls my heartbeat and every breath that I take. No matter what is happening or what trials come my way, I am to keep my “soul fit to manifest the life of the Son of God” and to “let the word of God be always living and active” in me.

With that, I again declared that my heart belongs to Him and He has every right to do with it as He pleases.

No pain ever again

For most people, the joy of something new does not last very long. For most, the honeymoon is over in six to eighteen months. A new car loses its shine even faster, as do new shoes, clothes and other material things. The delight of a new baby might stick with us, but all parents know how that joy also has its ups and downs.

Pain is another thing. It can stay with us for years, which means that our capacity for pain is greater than we would like it to be. Jesus was fully God was also fully human. He sweat blood in the garden and endured pain on the cross that we cannot fathom, demonstrating the human capacity for pain. Joy does not last that long, at least here and now. Yet one day both capacities will change when…

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. (Revelation 21:4)

I’d like to avoid pain right now. The pain of childbirth is one thing, and for most is quickly forgotten, but other suffering is not so quick to disappear. However, today’s devotional reading reminds me that that pain is at the root of life and growth, so much so that through pain we are carried to higher levels.

In suffering I was born. Pain informs me when something is wrong and teaches me lessons I do not forget. By the pain endured by Christ, I was redeemed and set free from the power and penalty of sin. Yes, pain is a curse, but it also has power. The devotional writer points out that we owe our laws to it, and all our art, our immortal books and especially our salvation.

Also, in every country and in every age people have looked on suffering and pain as something that was acceptable to God. What is so mysterious about pain that folks instinctively sense that in bearing it, God will be pleased? While such thoughts can have their twisted side and motivate bizarre methods of “pleasing the gods” such as walking on fire or sacrificing children, this universal instinct points to a reality; God says that sorrow is better than laughter (Ecclesiastes 7:3). The New Testament adds that…

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. (2 Corinthians 4:8–11)

Pain and affliction bring death to the old nature that God might bring forth the life of Christ that is in me. Sin is such that I cling to what is easy, familiar, and especially what gives me comfort and even glory. God’s way is self-denial, not to earn His favor but to get out of His way. Jesus lives in me but I can block Him by wanting joy all the time. Yet in this body and life, I do not have the capacity to be joyful all the time. In fact, supreme and extended joy can actually give me a supreme and extended headache.

The good news is that God’s Word also says the pain I dread now will be wiped away. God will give me a new capacity for joy, one that can handle an eternity full of it. Until then, these words encourage me…

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18)