Tugging At My Heartstrings

I often ponder how it is that we use words and phrases. Some, like the title of this article, are linked to strong feelings and emotions. Webster’s Dictionary attaches  “heartstrings” to some of our deepest feelings and strongest affections.

During my nearly fifty years of pastoral ministry, I have experienced incredible heights of joy as well as deep valleys of sorrow. Walking with the members of my congregation through the ups and downs of life, I have known the wonderful and heartfelt joy of a wedding, of a new birth, of a long time dream coming true, of one finding new life through faith in Christ.

On the other hand, I have joined with many families around the bed of a loved one who was dying, holding the grieving ones in my arms. I have sat with families in the emergency room as they held a dead child in their arms. I have comforted those who have just received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Because of my experience of having worked in OB/Gyn surgery, I once coached a young woman through childbirth, a labor which brought forth a stillborn baby. I became her coach, because being with her daughter at that time was too much for the grieving mother and grandmother.

Like a rubber band, I have felt my heartstrings stretch taut and then release. Many times I have experienced the highs and lows, the joys and the sorrows within hours of one another. I have literally gone between hospital rooms, encouraging a young couple about to give birth to their first child, then breaking away to go to another room where a loved one was dying. Often, after such events, I have told my wife Sandy, I don’t know how many more stretches my heartstrings can take before they snap.

Recently, I came across the picture above. The picture is one of literal heartstrings (tendons) that hold the tissues of the human heart together. These heartstrings have been known to break after deep emotional trauma, causing the heart to lose its form and then the ability to pump blood effectively. This medical event is called “Broken Heart Syndrome.” Yes, you can literally die from a broken heart.

More than once in my pastoral career, I have buried an aged husband and wife within a day or two of each other. One died of natural causes the other died from a broken heart.

This past week, I sat in an emergency room with my ninety-three year old father-in-law, following an accident in which he broke his hip. Sitting with him, praying with him, holding him as he writhed in pain, the strings in my heart were pulled tight once again.

Now, following surgery to repair the hip, he is struggling to regain strength and coordination that will allow him to survive this incredible trauma. My years of working in surgery and local hospitals have taught me that these kind of injuries are injuries from which the elderly seldom fully recover. And when I think those thoughts, I once again feel the tug on my heartstrings.

Since the Lord God, determined the length of my sojourn on earth before I ever saw the light of day (Psalm 139:16), He alone knows how many heartbeats I have left. He also knows the tensile strength of my heartstrings. Therefore, I can continue to risk the stretching and relaxing that is part and parcel to the ups and downs, the joys and sorrows of this life as I continue, to my dying breath, to serve God by serving His people, for they are one of the great loves of my life.