Every Wednesday, Allison Gingras and
Elizabeth Riordan invite Catholic bloggers to re-post their favorite
articles
on It’s "Worth Revisiting” Wednesday. Consider dropping in each week. I
have no doubt you will read something that will touch your heart and
stir your soul.
Go there now (and every
Wednesday). During the rest of each
week. visit Allison at Reconciled To You and
Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb.
What follows is my contribution this week.
Got To Have Heart - His and Yours
(Originally posted February 28, 2012 with a few minor edits))
When God created us, He inserted a heart within our chest, the mechanism that He made to pump blood and oxygen throughout our bodies. We all have one. Most of us rarely take notice of its rhythmic beats. It’s there but we pay little or no conscious attention to it – much like many of us have done to God – we know He’s “there” but ignore Him. We take Him for granted.
(Originally posted February 28, 2012 with a few minor edits))
When God created us, He inserted a heart within our chest, the mechanism that He made to pump blood and oxygen throughout our bodies. We all have one. Most of us rarely take notice of its rhythmic beats. It’s there but we pay little or no conscious attention to it – much like many of us have done to God – we know He’s “there” but ignore Him. We take Him for granted.
Of course in the case of our physical heart that situation changes if something happens to it. In that instance, you bet we become much more attentive to and aware of it. We can’t live without it.
So where am I going with this? Let me explain.
The daily readings one summer day in 2008 included a passage from Ezekiel (3:23-28), in which God promised to transform the prophet and to give him a new heart and a new spirit so that Ezekiel would be able to lead others to Him. Through this Scripture passage, the Lord let me recognize how frequently my words and actions may have caused others to walk away from the God I professed to love.
I asked Him right then and there for the grace to surrender my entire being to Him and to allow Him to use me as He willed. The very next day, I had a heart attack. He spared my life, opened three blocked arteries and gave me the new heart and spirit He promised Ezekiel and for which I had prayed the previous day. From time to time since then, I have asked myself: “What have I done with this new heart? Has anyone seen a difference in the way I have lived my life?” I am not always pleased with the answers these questions evoke.
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