The Heart of the Matter

by Nancy McGuirk

When the phone rang I could hardly make out my sister Barbara’s frantic words. Sobbing uncontrollably, she shouted, “Danny had a heart attack late last night! I’m at the hospital now and they don’t know if he is going to make it!” In total disbelief and trying to process what I just heard, I said, “I am leaving now and will be praying all the way there!” My husband and I were in Washington, D.C., visiting my daughter at the time but I immediately booked a seat on the next plane to Atlanta.

As I drove to the hospital I had so many mixed emotions: disbelief (“This can’t be happening.”), fear (“What would my sister do without him?”), and then, strangely, peace. This was not just my dear brother-in-law—this was my “preacher” brother-in-law. If there was a man who had lived “after God’s own heart” it was Danny. His life was filled with years of helping others grow in their faith and I suddenly knew if it was his time, he was in the best of hands—and the last person I needed to worry about.

But when death is knocking at the door—whether it’s your own door or that of a loved one—life suddenly stops and what matters most rushes to the surface. All I could think of were the apostle Paul’s well-known words, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). If we are living for Christ (as Danny was), life is great. Or if we are dying, and will be with Christ, life is great. With Christ at the center, life is a win-win. And Danny couldn’t lose either way.

As I sat in the waiting room of the hospital I began to reflect on what was going on. The heart is an amazing organ, truly the most important in the human body. It is the organ that keeps life-giving blood flowing through the body. It is the first to function when we begin our existence and the last to cease to operate when death arrives at our door.

But the importance of the physical heart is actually overshadowed by the importance of the spiritual heart—the seat of our affections and the center of our soul. God says that the object of our heart’s affections is the most important thing in life.

I saw my sister’s beautiful heart as she sat by the bedside of her sedated husband and held his hand and talked to him. I saw their son, Parker, display his heart’s affections for a father who seem to hang suspended between life and death. Doctor’s and nurses revealed kind hearts in their care, and friends revealed passionate spiritual hearts as they prayed for their friend’s recovery. All these hearts, revealed in so many ways, reminded me again that loving God and loving others with all our hearts is what really matters.

I will never forget the day Barbara and I walked in the room and Danny was awake. What a miracle! His heart was better and he was getting stronger. But this experience made all of us stronger. We were reminded that, as critical as the physical heart is, it’s the heart that loves that makes life really possible.