Tuesday, March 29

Greater than the Heart –
Cheering Up Your Heart.

If someone has a cardiac arrest the key is to encourage the person to do the best they can to get that heart started up again! If their name happens to be “Bart,” here’s a good cheer: “Bart! Bart! Start your heart!” And…  that should do the trick!

Or not.

The point is that a person suffering a heart attack needs outside help. Something more than cheers and encouragement. Many people have learned CPR. That’s a great tool for helping a person be revived or sustained until help arrives. Our church now has a defibrillator, it’s kept on the wall outside the kitchen, (the location could be motivated by concern about extra spicy chili). Of course this could literally be a lifesaver, so know where it is, and the new machines tell you exactly what to do. Reliable sources report that every minute of waiting to use a defibrillator decreases the potential for recovery by 10%.

What is interesting is that in most cases the heart has not “stopped,” but rather electrical signals are no longer organized and synchronized, as when the SA node in the right atrium is working properly. The defibrillator is often able to reset the SA node as the heart’s pacemaker once again.

None of this works without intervention from the outside.

Our hearts in Scripture are described before outside help arrives as being “dull” or “slow,” (Luke 24:25 actually uses the 2 words to describe one of the cardiac issues needing defibrillation – “bradycardia” or “slow heart”). But Ephesians 2:1 simply says we are “dead.” Can outside help at this point help? Think Lazarus (John 11). John also records a heart ailment where the heart finds its holder guilty!

“… in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God…” (I John 3:20, 21)

God is greater than our heart. The Creator can — and desires to — recreate us, and revive us. (Ep. 2:10, Isaiah 57:15)

The strange cheer that began this devotion, is not unlike the message that St. John brings in the verse that starts the topic of a condemning heart: “We will know by this that we are of the truth, and we will assure our heart at ease before Him… in whatever our heart condemns us.” (I John 3:19, 20a) John is not addressing spiritually dead people. He is addressing Christians in “ventricular fibrillation” (a quivering heart due to disorganized electrical activity). We are often weak in faith, caught in sin, and feel the guilt of the Law, (“our heart condemns us.”). Guilt is good, if it arrests the sin, and brings contrition. That’s when John says we need to “assure our heart.” All we do at the point of contrition is remind ourselves of God’s promises: “A broken and contrite heart You will not despise Lord!” (Psalm 51:17b)