Cardiorespiratory training, AKA cardio is what most of us in
the fitness industry would call heart training. If there was such a thing,
because very few people intentionally train their hearts. The problem with
cardio as heart training? When we talk about cardio, we spend most of our time
talking about breathing or muscle fatigue. We don’t talk about cardio in terms
of what it’s doing to our hearts or how it makes our heart feel. Which is a rather
odd, because our word cardio comes from the Greek word cardia, meaning heart. In
today’s fitness world, we don’t talk about the conditions of our hearts. It
gets overlooked because we focus on the more visible details. We talk a lot
about strength, flexibility, tone, and how well conditioned we are, but the
heart gets left out of the conversation. I’ve never heard a fitness instructor
say, “Engage your heart” or “Let’s get those ventricles pumping” Even writing
that cue makes me shiver. It’s awkward. No one says that. Despite my lack of
heart training tools and vocabulary, I can’t help thinking of the benefits of a
big heart. A big heart means big activity: more oxygenated blood delivered at a
more efficient pace. More oxygen means greater endurance and the more
efficiently blood circulates through the body the easier it is to run farther,
longer, and faster. Simply put strong hearts are capable of amazing physical feats.
Not just in humans, but horses too. One of the winningest horses in Australia
racing history had a massive heart. It’s so famous I can’t remember its name,
but that horse had a massive heart, powering it on to victory and again and
again. Why was that horse so much faster than its competition? The size and
strength of its heart. The horse’s heart is on display in the nation museum in
Canberra. It’s at least 4 inches/10 cm wider than a normal heart! Big strong hearts
are capable of big strong things.
When it comes to measuring the strength of our human hearts,
I think science comes up a little bit short. Measuring the heart isn’t just a
matter of size, there’s more to hearts than that. True, we can measure systolic
and diastolic pressure, we can measure beats per minute, we can measure resting
heart rates, but these are superficial ways of measuring the heart. These
measurements may define a healthy heart, but a healthy heart is more than its
measurements. It’s not about how slowly your heart beats while resting, or how
fast it recovers from exercise: a heart’s condition says something about the
person, who they are, not just their physical condition.
If we look at historical old world definitions of the heart,
we find the heart is more than a muscle. It’s a description of a person’s
entirety. It’s the total of someone’s attitudes, beliefs, expectations, hopes
and dreams. A person with a big heart is generous and giving, full of empathy
for others. A person with a lot of heart never gives up, even against difficult
odds. A person with a small heart doesn’t think about others, and a person with
a weak heart means well but gives in even though at the first signs of
difficulty. Our old world friends thought a strong heart was a sign of
character: someone capable of noble deeds and selfless acts. It wasn’t just
about having your heart in the right place, or having a physically strong
heart, but showing what was inside your heart by outward action. You knew
someone’s heart by how they acted, not just who they said they were.
When I think about Jesus’ heart, I could measure it by the
works that he did: healing, teaching, standing up for others rights. But that’s
the full measure of Jesus. Jesus was more than the total of his actions. I
think of John’s description of Jesus heart, moments after Jesus died on the
cross. It tells us how Jesus died. “When [the soldiers] came to Jesus and found
that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the
soldiers pierced Jesus side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and
water.” Jesus didn’t die because he couldn’t breathe. He didn’t die from blood
loss. He didn’t die of thirst. He died because his heart failed. The separation
of blood and water in his body is evidence of this. Jesus died of a broken
heart. Or a myocardial infarction for those who’d like to use the fitness term J Very unusual for a
person who walked his whole life, had a diet consisting mainly of bread and
fish, and who was in his early thirties. Isn’t it odd that Jesus died of a
broken heart?
Jesus heart broke, not his spirit. His body, though mangled,
did not give out. Instead his heart, the old world measure for the entirety of
his earthly self, broke. What caused
this? What could break the heart of Jesus? What could break a man who could
endure such physical punishment? Looking at Luke’s account I think I have an
answer. It comes straight from Jesus mouth as he hung on the cross, “Father,
forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Our ignorance and lack
of understanding broke his heart. Our refusal to know God and live in His love
broke Jesus heart. That was his choice. He chose
to love us, even though we freely deny his love. Jesus, who came to heal the
broken, not just the physically deformed, but also the relationally maimed and
spiritually disenchanted came to set us free from the habits and behaviors that
drag us down. He came to set us free from the heaviness of our hearts, to cast
off the unneeded weight, allowing us to live freely and rightly surrounded by his
love. Instead of accepting his free offering of wholeness, we ran away. We
couldn’t escape him, but we, like wounded animals, turned on him and killed
him. Jesus knew this was the price. He did it anyway. He willingly gave up his
life and let his heart break. For us.
For us to know God, for us to have the opportunity to have our hearts
strengthened, opened and made whole. Jesus’ heart wasn’t weak. It wasn’t small.
It was big and full of character. It was big enough to give us all a second
chance, and strong enough to overcome the pain of the cross. He endured where
we ran away. Truly he had a heart like no other.
But did we really
do this to Jesus? We who live in this
day and age, even though Jesus died thousands of years ago? What do we have to do with his death? Jesus
heart didn’t break for a small community of Jews living in a small region of
the world at a point and place in time, his heart broke for all people, in all
places, across all time. How could a human heart do this? Simple. Jesus had
more than a human heart. He had the heart of God. Not a heart after God, but the heart of God. Jesus was God himself:
God in human form. Even though Jesus died of heart failure, his heart was
stronger than death. That was why his heart broke in the first place. Jesus put
all of himself, his entire being into facing down death and conquering it. He
did the death workout so we don’t have to. We will still die a physical death,
but we have the opportunity of life after death. Of living with God in world
where there are no more tears, where every eye has been dried and every wrong
has been made right. That is what Jesus died for, for us to have an opportunity
at eternal life, not just physical life.
But that’s not all, there’s more.
Jesus didn’t just die for a distant future living in perfect
harmony, Jesus died for the here and the now. Jesus lived to heal and to make
things right. He wasn’t just a wise spiritual sage. He actually healed people.
He opened eyes, put strength into weak legs, raised people from the dead and
freed people from the demons that had haunted them for their whole lives.
Entering into Jesus love isn’t just about eternal security, it’s about having a
touchable, visual and measurable effect upon life around us. Accepting the
heart of Jesus isn’t just a personal thing, it’s communal. Accepting Jesus into
your life not only changes and heals the brokenness of your life, but it also
gives us grace to take part in the healing of those around us. He gives us the
strength to bring life into places where there has been death: to right what
has been made wrong. He gives us the strength because his heart is strong. He
give us what he has, and his heart will never run dry.
Jesus heart is big, too big for us to keep hidden in the
dark corners of our personal lives. His heart must shine through us and pour
out of us or else there is no place for his heart in our lives. The mark of a
strong heart is reliance on Jesus, to face impossible odds and come out
victorious. Jesus faced his own death and was able to overcome his fears and
live out what God had for him to do. He set us free by his life, and united us
with God by his death. He did what no one else could do, and by his heart we
are able to do what few others can. Live life with a strong and noble heart.
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