Surgery

I have been watching too much Grey’s Anatomy recently. I blame my roommate and a fellow teacher. Though I have to admit, I think it has helped me come up with an analogy for one aspect of my life right now. (Even though I’m sure I could have come up with one some other way- I have a tendency to do that.)

Start with these assumptions: We are made for relationships. We are incomplete without relationships, of which we need a variety.

Imagine that relationships are like surgeries. Without these relationships, the parts of our body are functional, but not optimal. Ask a doctor, and He’ll recommend a surgery to improve your life. And we know that even without talking to a doctor. We seek out certain surgeries and treatments and see a positive change in our life.

(For the sake of time, I will only look at one ‘surgery’ that I am facing, which sparked this analogy. Though, I expect an expansion on this in the future.)

Heart surgery is the worst. At various times in our lives, we go in for surgery on our heart, hoping that this time something will be done to make our heart beat more normally, affecting the rest of our living. I personally have willingly gone in for this surgery a couple times. The first one was a bit unstable throughout and ended quickly, leaving me with a partially open wound and a big scar. However, this is not the one I want to talk about; this one is healing well.

I am currently in surgery. There is work being done. Yet I have gathered hints from the way things are going that my heart will not be repaired fully. It will not beat perfectly after this is over. I trust it will be better than it was after the last one and the wound will be closed with a smaller scar. But it won’t be fully fixed.

So here I lie on the operating table, chest open with my heart in full view, asking myself these questions: Is it worth it to get my heart a bit better when this surgery will not leave me perfect? Is another scar on my heart worth the improvement of unknown magnitude? I think the surgery can be perfected in one time…even two isn’t bad. Nevertheless, each new surgery is more pain and scars.

Is progress, with pain, without perfect, worth it? Can I bear another scar without having a perfect heart?

*please do not think that the perfect I am longing for with each surgery is only possible with God. He is in charge of the soul surgery. That is a one-time surgery, though few opt for that operation.*