The One Where I Feel Like I Had Open Heart Surgery

There is no wonder why we use the heart as an analogy for our deep, inner emotions and experiences.  It is our lifeblood.  The heart keeps us alive; it causes us to function.  Without it all of our body fails.  The health of our heart affects every part of our lives.

So it is with our non-physical heart…the health of it impacts everything in our lives.  “Guard your heart, for it affects everything you do” (Proverbs 4:23, NLT).  Sometimes we need “open heart surgery”. 

Something about being vulnerable…makes you feel like you just literally experienced open heart surgery.  Laying raw on the table, cut open down the middle.  Allowing anything in and anything out.

Being honest and vulnerable…It is open heart surgery.  Only by being vulnerable can you learn, grow, trust, heal.

Open heart surgery is to fix something that was broken.  A valve that is not working properly, or to remove a blockage.  Something that is keeping your heart from receiving and sending out blood and oxygen.  That is what keeps you alive.

Sometimes we are ‘clogged’ with negative emotions.  Sometimes the lies we believe about ourselves thin our veins.  Often the lack of grace we give ourselves can make the heart work twice as hard just to survive. 

The pain and rawness of open heart surgery, well it is absolutely necessary.  And it leads to healing and health.  It will be painful for a while, but in the end you are better off.  So it is with being open with the Body of Christ, and with Christ Himself.

When we expose what is broken, what is not functioning as it should, we give God the chance to heal.  The Divine Surgeon goes to work in our hearts and helps us function truly.  Sometimes He uses His residents, to inform us of what needs fixing.  And then often He uses His nurses to prepare us, to stand by us, and to help us heal.  I’m experiencing this now.  Learning that people who love Jesus also love me, and care about my healing.  They care about the health of my heart.  And maybe as we let the Lord heal our heart, we can help others experience the same thing.  Because when the blockages are removed, and the thin veins are replaced, and the chest is sewn back up – well then the whole body works as it should.  Then the oxygen goes to the brain and air can flow freely. 

And as God heals our hearts then grace and love can flow freely, without anything standing in the way.  No longer is there something keeping us from releasing love from the heart, to the brain, to the world.