The heart matters: what matters most

With enthusiasm and anticipation I jumped on a

I flew last Thursday night to Florida to visit my

family and fishing with my dad. Six hours later

arrival I watched painfully as many kinds of

medical professionals frantically, but

methodically temporarily stopping my father’s heart in

to avoid that it does not matter twenty minutes

later.

We see it in movies, we even practice it in

medical school, but when it’s part of yours

Blood somehow feels like it’s her heart

that table fighting for its own life. My father

It looked like something out of the Matrix movie with

all those wires and electrodes hooked on it. I

He thought, “If I could trade places with him

and take away the pain. “I prayed,” God let me be

just for this moment and make this all go away

“I was wondering if God could

easily come down and heal my daddy or he could just

take it from us to heaven, however,

Either way he had to trust and obey. I also thought

from the moment when just a few hours after me

arrival that all this was happening. Might

Is there a hidden meaning in all this? There are

positive even in the face of death? Show me god

Teach me something Lord, I prayed!

My thoughts go back about three months to a

conversation I had with a Christian friend from

mine. At lunch we talked about current affairs and

how much faith did he take in the midst of death and

tough relationships. He said, “Maybe God is

preparing you for what is to come. “I thought the

The only thing I can think of worse than a closure

friend dying would be the death of my parents. Tea

The Bible says in Matthew 6:21 “For if your treasure

it is, your heart will also be. “Now, as I

look at my father in that hospital room that I have

I realized and am grateful that my treasures are not

of what this world has to offer, but it is,

“Matters of the heart” that are the most

important. It is not my job, my car, my house or

even my friends, but as painful as he is

The most important thing is that my heart strives for

my parents and Jesus are close to ours.

I wonder if this is how Jesus feels

every day with us. As we lay down in that hospital

bed of life, sometimes frustrated, helpless and

scared, what he wants more than anything

Ease the pain, change places and take it all away.

outside. And then I thought, he has done all that

and much more. He died on the cross for us, ha

it already took away the pain. And you know, knowing

he did that for me allowed all that fear and

frustration to disappear.

Although my father did not die this weekend in that

hospital and is on the road to recovery, this

Experience has helped me to realize that it is

It’s not really about the treasures here on earth. What

what matters most is our trust and obedience in God

Almighty. You will see that it is easy for us to trust and

obey in the good times of life, but it is in those

hospital rooms and lows when we realize

where our hearts really are and that’s what

it matters more to God.

Where is your heart this week? Do you lie with

the treasures of this world or is it with him

who died for you on the cross. Because it is in our

weakness towards where we find our greatest strengths.