The recovery and healing process that comes after open heart surgery is nothing like I thought it would be. Perhaps the most unexpected thing is that it has very little to do with the heart itself. As my future begins to play out, I will be required to make adjustments to my lifestyle in order to keep my ticker running at its optimal best, but regarding what I am going through right now in the rehab process, it is the rest of my body that is my biggest concern.
My heart does not hurt. It is not my heart that feels exhausted and just plain old "blah." It is not my heart that I am currently babying so that it will heal correctly. In fact, right now, my heart is the very least of my concerns.
When my surgeon went in and worked on my heart and its attached parts, he did not stop until everything within his power had been done to make sure it was operating at its greatest ability. So my heart is now in the best condition that it can be. The same cannot be said of the rest of my body.
The reality of recovery from heart surgery is that my concern is for all of my body that is not the heart. My chest was cut open and the bone must heal correctly. My bad arteries are now bypassed and new ones are sending full flow to every part of me. My leg is bruised and wounded from where arteries were removed to create the bypasses. I am getting more blood and more oxygen to my system than my body is used to. I get tired and winded and light-headed. The whole of my person is trying to figure out how to deal with this new heart, and it is trying to adjust.
The adjustment is the key. That is what is happening now. My heart was "made new" and the rest of my body has been forced to play catch up. It it a process that will take time and work. Sometimes there will be pain, often there will be weariness.
It is a process that I must be diligent and patient with.
If I persist, my body will eventually begin to see the place of good health where my heart is leading it. That place where the heart and body act as one is the desired objective. It is the ultimate goal.
God fixed my spiritual heart when I brought it to the cross of grace.
The problem is no longer the heart. The pain and weariness I experience spiritually has nothing to do with an incomplete work of God, but rather, it is the result of the rest of me trying to catch up with what God has done.
It is a process that I must be diligent and patient with.
It is a process that will require time and work.
And if I persist, I will find that it is a process that will ultimately lead to a spiritual life which is entirely consistent with the heart that God has put in me.
And if I persist, I will find that it is a process that will ultimately lead to a spiritual life which is entirely consistent with the heart that God has put in me.
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