SCAR TISSUE

My sweet big brother has been way off in Cleveland this week having a heart procedure.  He suffers with A-Fib which causes an irregular and run away heart beat.  At other times his pulse is so slow, he is almost faint.  I suffer from lack of knowledge that my heart is even beating most of the time.  Unless the merciless trainer has me lifting heavy weights--especially over my head, I normally am not even aware I have a heart.  (NO COMMENTS ABOUT ME BEING HEARTLESS)

Big Brother has suffered with this for a number of years, but lately the medication has failed to get him back into rhythm.  The huge danger of A-Fib is stroke.  The irregular heart rhythm can cause you to form a clot which might travel to your brain.  This is nothing to fool around with, so he had a procedure done in an effort to get him back in rhythm and in good health.

The procedure is call cardiac ablation--here is what Mayo Clinic said about it~

Cardiac ablation is a procedure to scar or destroy tissue in your heart that's allowing incorrect electrical signals to cause an abnormal heart rhythm. Diagnostic catheters are threaded through blood vessels to your heart where they are used to map your heart's electrical signals

The procedure took 6 1/2 hours.  A long wait for all of us from afar to hear how he was doing.  The good news is so far-so good.  It will take weeks to know if the procedure has corrected the problem, but we are all hopeful and praying this is the fix.  I need my brother around to keep me on my toes and humble.

As i waited for updates from my sister in law, I began to think over exactly how this procedure works.  The doctor basically burns healthy tissue which is sending incorrect electrical signals to fix the problem.  The doctor said Big Brother's heart tissue was so resilient (a good thing) that it took a lot of burning to create the desired scarring.  The scarring of the heart was necessary to destroy the tissue which was sending the wrong signals  to ensure the heart performs as it should.

Exactly like our lives.  We are studying the Holy Spirit in small group.  Last night we discussed how God uses fire to purify us from sin at times. The suffering and pain we endure in life can also cause scarring.  God allows us to suffer the consequences of our actions and many times this is very painful.  At times we must suffer the pain of the Refiner's fire to destroy that which comes between us and our Holy God.  But when the fire has cooled, and the wound is healed, all that remains is the scar to remind us of God's work to destroy the chaff in our lives.  What a beautiful picture of God's work of sanctification to those who He has called according to His purpose.

For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.

 You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs;

 you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water;

 yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

Psalm 66:10-12