Issues of the Heart

Today my wife and I took our boys to Arkansas Children's Hospital for their heart checkups. As many of you know, both of our sons are under the care of a Cardiologist. They share a common heart defect (they both have bicuspid aortic valves.) However, my younger son was also born with a congenital blockage in his aorta that required heart surgery when he was only 6 days old. The purpose of this visit was to listen to both heart murmurs and insure that nothing was changing in their condition and, in the one case, to check on the integrity of the repair that was done.

Being parents of heart patients, my wife and I have learned a lot along the way about the different conditions that our boys have. One of the things that we learned early on was that they check for problems with scar tissue around the blockage repair by comparing blood pressures taken in the arm and the leg. These two should be relatively close together. Today was the first check in over two years and we were surprised to discover that the nurses noted a 20 point difference between the arm and the leg. This was an immediate source of concern for me and I was quite certain that it would concern the doctor as well.

When the doctor finally came to see us, after a resident and a student had their turns with our boys, he brought up the disparity in blood pressures and told us he had decided to do an echo to check on the heart function and the site of the repair. After the echo was finished, it was determined that the heart function was normal but that the repair was too difficult to see with an echo. Next we discussed an MRI in order to get a better look at the site of the repair. However, much to my surprise, the doctor ordered the MRI to be done next summer.

“Next summer?” I couldn’t believe it. I was ready to find out something right now! The doctor proceeded to explain that even if there was some restriction from the scar tissue developing it wasn’t anything that was happening fast. “Next summer we will be 10 years removed from the surgery,” he said, “and that’s a good point to assess any possible problems.” What he said next stirred my soul. In issues of the heart, according to the doctor, things develop slowly.

I began to turn that over in my mind. It appears to me that, once again, physical truth bears out a greater spiritual reality. In matters of the heart, things develop slowly. I’ve been in church all my life. I’ve watched people come and go. I’ve seen folks lose out with God along the way. But the truth is that I’ve never seen anyone walk away from God overnight. I’ve never seen anyone decide on moments notice to walk away from grace and abandon their faith. The truth is that these things happen slowly.

Bitterness takes time to get a grip on a heart. Unfaithfulness and deceit take time to overtake a person’s convictions. In matters of the heart, it is a slow process that turns one away from God and separates one from the presence of God. I would venture that there are many out there today that are far from God that never intended to end up there. They never intended to grow cold in their spirit. They never intended to let their faithfulness slip. They never intended to put distance between themselves and the loving presence of God. But it happened to them. And it happened so slowly that many of them didn’t even realize, until it was too late, just how far they had drifted from God.

I simply want to remind you today that in matters pertaining to the heart, things happen slowly. It is absolutely critical to each of us that we maintain the condition of our hearts on a daily basis. A drift away from the presence of God may be a slow and gradual process but the absolute truth is that if we aren’t vigilant to bring ourselves into the presence of God on a regular basis, we will drift away from him. It doesn’t happen fast and it isn’t sudden. But, mark my words, it does happen. This is why it is so essential that you maintain a relationship with God, that you spend regular time in prayer and the study of the word. This is what Paul was talking about when he admonished us not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by a process of renewal.

I want to encourage you today to renew your mind in the Lord. Renew your heart in his presence. Allow the goodness of God to wash over you, allow the presence of God to minister to your life. In his presence, those little things that would take root and begin to develop in our hearts are exposed and rooted out. In his presence, conviction stirs our souls and attitudes and issues are resolved. In his presence all things are made new and old things pass away. It is that continual exposure to the presence of God that guards your heart against that inevitable slow drift away from God.

The good news is that, in issues of the heart, things develop slowly. If you've neglected your relationship with God, there's still time to turn back to him. If you've been drifting away from his presence there is still time to get things back on track. I want to encourage you today to make it a point to spend time in his presence. We could all use an honest heart checkup from the master physician...