Tell Your Heart to Beat Again!

During an open-heart surgery, the patient's heart had been stopped from beating. However, when it came time to restart it, despite desperate and repeated attempts, the medical team was unable to get the heart to beat again.

Finally, although the patient was obviously unconscious, the surgeon leaned over and spoke into the patient's ear, "We need your help. We cannot get your heart going. Tell your heart to begin beating again." Immediately, as incredible as it may sound, the patient's heart began to beat again.

I have been called upon recently, more often than I would like, to officiate at funerals of people who have committed suicide. Funerals are memorials to the life of a loved one, but the message is for the living, not the dead. Therein lies the problem! What does a minister say that will bring some level of comfort to the grieving family, especially in those circumstances?

What I have said is, "you, too, can tell your heart to beat again. There is hope beyond these very difficult circumstances. Grieving is essential to your health and well-being, but God, the source of all hope, wants to add His peace to your mind and soul and give you a future filled with hope." 

You can begin to experience this hope by choosing to thank God for the years you have enjoyed with your loved one. That's where all the great memories are. Walk through those memories again, with delight. Laugh and cry as you do, and soon the pain of your loss begins to give way to your joy and thanksgiving for the wonderful memories you have.

Otherwise, the feeling of hopelessness begins to consume your mind. Soon, you are overwhelmed as your world shrinks to the size of your pain. Then pain becomes your constant companion as you think more and more about all you could have and should have done. Self blame leads to more self pain that seems incurable. It only gets worse from that point on.

But God promises a much better future. He boldly declares that He will cause your valley of trouble to be turned into a gateway to hope that will lead to two blessings for every one of your troubles. How good is that? He loves taking our disasters and tragedies, and causing them to lead us to receiving beauty for the ashes we have experienced. All it takes is believing He is the way, the truth, and the light.

In fact, He says it this way, "I know the plans I have for you...They are plans for good and not disaster. Plans for a future and a hope."

Tell your heart to beat again!