Dave’s Monday Blast – July 6, 2020
I read an article the other day by Pastor Mark Batterson entitled “The Tribe of the Transplanted.” He shared an experience he had at the National Day of Prayer in Washington D.C. several years ago where the keynote speaker was Dr. Bill Frist. Prior to his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Dr. Frist performed more than 150 heart transplants as a thoracic surgeon. He talked in reverent tones about the moment when a heart has been grafted into a new body and all the surgical team can do is wait in hopes that it will begin to beat. At that point he stopped speaking in medical terms and starting speaking in spiritual terms. Almost at a loss for words as he described the miraculous moment when a heart beats in a new body for the first time. He called it a mystery.
As many of you know, my younger brother is a heart transplant recipient. Four years ago he became a part of the mystery. Although transplants in general are a marvel of modern medicine, the heart goes way beyond what medicine can explain or understand. In his book A Man After His Own Heart, Charles Siebert shares a scientific yet poetic depiction of a typical heart transplant recipient. As a collective, they speak in reverent tones about the second chance at life they had been given. They humbly acknowledged their responsibility to honor the donors. And many of them talked about new desires that accompanied their new hearts.
Siebert concluded…and his research is backed up by numerous medical studies, that transplant recipients don’t just receive a new heart. Along with that new heart, they receive whole new sensory responses, cravings, habits, and in my brother’s case…dreams that were part of the life of a twenty five year old who grew up on the Island of Hawaii loving to surf and play basketball. My brother shares vivid memories of the life of another.
Siebert called this group of heart recipients “the tribe of the transplanted.” “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26).
Batterson comments, “A life may be filled with lots of amazing moments, but nothing even begins to compare with that miraculous moment when you give your heart to Christ. That single decision sets off a spiritual chain reaction with infinite implications. A new child is adopted into the family of God. A new name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And an old heart is exchanged for a new heart.” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
When you give your heart to Christ, Christ gives His heart to you. And you become a part of the tribe of the transplanted. Next week I want to chat about the practical implications of being given a new heart by our Father and our responsibility to honor that donor.
