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Lyme disease, a tick-borne illness caused by a bacterial infection, is sometimes called “the great imitator.” With its multiplicity of possible symptoms, it can mimic a wide variety of other conditions. Its hallmark symptom, a bull’s-eye–like rash, is often not present, and many patients cannot recall having been bitten by a tick.
I contracted Lyme disease in 2006. I did have the rash, but it was on my back, so I didn’t notice what it looked like. I couldn’t recall having been bitten by a tick, and to this day I’m not sure where it happened.
My primary symptom was a rare one called Lyme carditis. The infection had reached my heart, which then became inflamed. My heart’s electrical system wasn’t working right, so my heart switched to a backup system that would keep me alive, but that system could not adapt to my activity level. No matter if I was sitting quietly or running uphill, my heart would beat about thirty-five times per minute.
At the hospital, I was given a temporary pacemaker until the infection cleared up. If it didn’t happen soon, the doctors would have to remove the temporary pacemaker and implant a permanent one. I spent an anxious few nights in the cardiac ICU—praying, considering life with a pacemaker, and seeking encouragement from Scripture.
One passage that came to my mind as I pondered my malfunctioning heart was Ezekiel 36:26: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” My invoking of this passage was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, of course, but this verse nevertheless speaks to the power of God to carry out His promises for the good of His people, an encouragement that I needed.
In our sinful state, our hearts are not merely malfunctioning; they are cold, stony, dead. There is no spiritual life in us. We are incapable of raising ourselves to new life or responding positively to the kindness of God or appeals to place our faith in Him. In our sinful state, our situation is dire. We hate God and are justly under His wrath and curse.
If we are to be saved, we need nothing less than a heart transplant; we need a new heart to give us new spiritual life. The Westminster Confession of Faith tells us that this happens in our effectual calling (10.1), wherein also the Holy Spirit “convinc[es]us of our sin and misery, enlighten[s] our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renew[s] our wills” (Westminster Shorter Catechism 31). In doing this, the Spirit “doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel” (WSC 31).
In God’s mercy, my infection cleared up, I did not need a pacemaker, and I do not have any lingering effects. But in God’s greater mercy, He gives His people new hearts. Without this work of the Spirit, we would remain dead in our sins and trespasses, yet God in His great love for us has raised us to new life in Christ (Eph. 2:1–5).