HARDNESS

Cardiologists are hunting for a way to clear arteries clogged by plague. They've tried using lasers to burn through the plague. They've experimented with rotating burrs to grind away the plague. They've even tried using rotating knives to cut away plague. None of these methods have succeeded.

At the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in 1993, researchers reported on another experimental device that would work like a tiny jackhammer inside the arteries. Writer Jon Van says the device is inserted into the coronary arteries via a tiny wire called a catheter. There it emits low-frequency, ultrasound energy, vibrating the jackhammer-like tip of the probe at 19,500 times a second, about one-thousandth of an inch back and forth each time. After the jackhammer has done its work, a balloon is inserted into the narrowed artery and expanded to open the artery.

In twenty-nine test cases, the jackhammer seemed to accomplish something the other methods could not. It broke down the calcium and gristle in the hard plague without harming the soft walls of the artery.

Hardening of the arteries is the enemy of the heart. A dangerous hardness can also develop in our spiritual lives, a hardness that constricts the life-giving love of God in our lives. If your heart has been hardened, there is no better "jackhammer" than to humble yourself before the Lord.


Anger, Heart, Humility, Prayer, Repentance
Eph. 4:17-19; Heb. 3:13; 1 Peter 5:6
 
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