Stan Larkin lived without a heart for 17 months. That is, he had no heart in his body but an external artificial heart that he carried in a backpack. This was a temporary provision while he waited for a heart transplant. In late 2014, his condition had reached the point that he had to have a transplant, but there was no compatible heart available. Thus, the artificial heart.
It appears that Larkin was able to function while lugging about the 13.5 pound machine. Occasionally, he was even able to play pick-up basketball. But an artificial heart is not enough. He was not able to live his life to the fullest. He still needed a real heart, which he finally got in 2016.
I started thinking of passages in scripture about the heart or about being heartless. Of course, the significant passages refer to the heart in a figurative way. And it has to do with character, morality, or spirituality. Two passages in particular use the word “heartless” (in the ESV). Paul writes of the human tendency to ignore God and do as they please. In the end, they are “foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (Romans 1.28-31 ESV). Describing the difficult times of the “last days,” Paul writes of people who are “heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good” (2 Timothy 3.1-5 ESV). “Heartless” here refers to a character trait that is devoid of good feelings or affection toward others, having no regard for others. Scripture condemns heartlessness. However, its use here does not quite match the picture presented by Larkin’s experience.
There are two identical passages, though, that speak of two kinds of hearts. “I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11.19 NIV; also 36.26). This is a figurative reference to a person’s religious or spiritual existence—how one relates to God. The “heart of stone” may be likened to an artificial heart. It allows one just to “function” in a spiritual sense, to engage in accepted religious behavior, but still not experience true spiritual living. A new “heart of flesh” needs to be planted in a person. With a heart of flesh, one can truly live as God designed and intended for us to live—in a right relationship with him.
In the end, to have a heart of stone is really to be heartless. For it is artificial and does not produce the authentic life that is properly trusting and submissive to the Lord. People need a spiritual heart transplant so that they can truly live. God graciously offers this through Jesus the Christ and Lord, and it is received through faith in him.
Thank God, we don’t have to be heartless!
—Keith Y. Jainga