What’s ticking in your ticker? (Gee, that’s a glib question to begin with, Pastor!) Medical science, procedures and surgeries can do amazing things to repair our hearts. It is commonplace now that if you go in for a heart catheterization and they find a blockage, they take you directly to a stent procedure. The doctor puts a monitor on you if you feel something is slightly amiss. You can get your pacemaker checked by a simple, quick phone call. To really know someone’s heart, though, is a different matter beyond the scope of medicine.

It is ingrained in us at an early age that there are societal norms, rules, laws to be obeyed so that we can live peaceably with each other. Still, when it comes to getting in touch with our inner self, i.e. the heart, we get uneasy, even defensive. Menfolk are especially good (bad?) at this. On this point, it is well worth noting how the first disciples evolved. We imagine and portray them as rugged, worldly, maybe even macho. Then along comes Jesus to open their minds and hearts. With that came the gift of the Spirit before Jesus ascended to heaven. When we read the post-resurrection accounts in the Gospels, we can see the heart of their spirits being touched by the reality, the culmination, of everything Jesus foretold. They respond, from Easter day onward with doubt (Thomas), amazement, joy, lack of recognition (Emmaus road and John 21), and eating fish for breakfast.

 We know with our minds that Christ died, Christ arose, ascended, and will return. But what’s ticking in your ticker? Do you feel and experience these realities? These facts are always embedded within us because God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit in our baptism. Our flaws and shortcomings that gnaw at our hearts and souls are wiped away so that new life and good fruit may flourish. We can recapture, tap into our true self. Get in touch with the heart of your Spirit! Don’t get hung up on propriety, rules, doctrine and norms. Give expression for the reason you have joy in that ticker of yours that doctors and the Great Healer can repair. Always remember that God chooses to love us unconditionally.

Pastor Art