A Renewed Heart

A Renewed Heart

The LORD will work out his plans for my life—for your faithful love, O LORD, endures forever. Don’t abandon me, for you made me. Psalm 138:8

“Dr. Anderson, my ticker is doing that thing again,” Derrick said. “I feel it racing, like it wants to jump out of my chest, and then I get short of breath. You don’t suppose God brought me all this way just to take me now, do you?”

“Tell me more about what’s going on.”

“I can’t even walk up a flight of stairs without running out of breath. Ever since the heart attack, things have been a little haywire, but I believe this is something worse.”

“Okay, let’s get you to the hospital, just to make sure it’s not.”

“That sounds good,” Derrick said.

His response nearly floored me. Derrick was the kind of guy who resisted any kind of medical intervention. With his first myocardial infarction, he argued with me the entire time, but now he seemed to have had the wind blown out of his sails—and that concerned me.

At the hospital, we consulted with Derrick’s regular cardiologist, who had placed three stents into Derrick’s cardiac arteries just six months earlier. After the examination, I told Derrick the news.

“Dr. Johnson says your plumbing is okay. All the stents are still wide open. But the myocardial infarction knocked out some of your electrical pathways. That’s why you feel your heart jumping around so much. You’re going to need a pacemaker and a defibrillator. Dr. Steinfeld will be here in a few minutes to explain how it will work. Until he gets that done, we have to keep you in the ICU to make sure you stay safe.”

Derrick looked defeated. “I’m kinda worried that I won’t make it through this one.”

I shared today’s verse from the book of Psalms with him. “Just like your doctors have a plan for your physical heart, God has a plan for your spiritual heart, too. More than anything, he wants you to trust him.”

Derrick was quiet for a moment. “Thanks, Dr. Anderson.”

Derrick’s surgery went smoothly, and a few months later, he stopped by for a blood pressure check. All he could talk about was the miracle that God had done in his heart—literally and figuratively. God had not abandoned Derrick, and Derrick was grateful.

TODAY’S RX

A healthy heart is a thankful heart. Thank God for his faithfulness today.

Father, thank you for faithfully caring for me every day. Provide me with energy and rest and healing today, and show me how best to take care of myself.