Heart Test

I accompanied my father to the examination room for his 2D echo test three days ago. It was my first time to see a sonogram of the heart. I could hardly remember all the parts of our central organ, but as I saw the images of my father’s heart and heard its beat as it pumps rhythmically, I was struck with awe.

A provoking line from Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love came to my mind. The majority of us take for granted our kidneys, liver, lungs, and other internal organs that we’re dependent upon to continue living. We know our kidneys are inside our bodies, our heart is in our chest. But it’s not until we experience a sharp pain in the back or difficulty in breathing that we become concerned. Chan was right. On the average day, we forget that our life is truly a vapor. We could die any moment.

In the same vein, we don’t consider God very much most of the time. We’re either struggling to survive, or just the opposite, succeeding steadily that we leave God in the sidelines. Some might object. I pray to Him first thing in the morning. I attend church on Sundays. When I have time, I volunteer. I give a portion of my income to support the work of the church. But is that enough? Or should we rather ask:  Is that the only way we are to view our devotion to God?

Jesus commanded His followers, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). The other day, I stumbled upon an article by Jason DeRouchie titled "Love God with Your Everything" where he expounded on the said verse. I think he captured what it means to love God with all our hearts and soul when he said, “We are to love God with our passions, hungers, perceptions, and thoughts. But we are also to love him with how we talk, and what we do with our hands, and how we utilize our talents, and how we react to challenges — our entire being is to display that we love God.”

From time to time it’s good to submit our hearts for a spiritual test. Let’s allow God to search our hearts and show us what really makes our hearts beat, what makes them sick, why they wander far from Him.  Let us allow God, the One who made our hearts and keeps them beating, to impress upon us what pleases Him. From time to time, let’s check if our hearts are still in sync with Him.