Journal Article

Create in Me a Clean Heart

It was a frigid January morning in the year 2007. An unassuming man made his way to the Federal Triangle Station in Washington, DC. Right at rush hour, he stood still in the middle of the bustling lobby. People ebbed and flowed around him, hurrying to catch their trains. Quietly, the man took a violin from a worn case, tuned the strings with care, and tightened the bow. Then he lifted the instrument to his chin and began to play.

The glorious melodies he created mingled with the shuffling of shoes, the clanking of coins, the clattering of turnstiles, and the distant rumble of the trains. For forty-five minutes, the musician filled the station with the intricate trills and metered melodies of Johan Sebastian Bach. Never once did he miss a note. The emotion he poured out through his flawless performance was exquisite.

While the musician played, one middle-aged man stopped for a brief moment before moving on. A few minutes later, a woman passed by and tossed a dollar bill into the open case. Then she, too, hurried away. Several children paused on their way to school, gazing quizzically. They were quickly dragged away by their preoccupied parents.

After forty-five minutes, the performer put away his violin, counted his earnings, and found $32.00 in his case. The donations came from approximately twenty people, none of whom actually stopped to listen. Only one person—the first middle-aged man—had even paused momentarily to enjoy the music as it floated through the station. No one applauded.

What the hurrying crowd did not notice was that the man in the lobby was Joshua Bell, one of the world’s greatest violinists. The instrument he played was valued at more than $3.5 million. Two days earlier, Mr. Bell had played exactly the same music in a packed concert hall where tickets averaged $100.00 each.

This true story gives evidence that, depending upon the situation, it is possible for several thousand people to pass by one of the most talented individuals in the world, without noticing what is right in their presence. It mattered not that the violinist was playing some of the finest music ever written on one of the best instruments in existence. People simply did not pay attention to anything but the train to which they were headed.

The rush-hour travellers had preconceived notions about the value of whatever goes on in a train station, and those notions robbed them of their own powers of observation.

Do we have any preconceived notions that limit our view of the world in which we live? In our hurry to get where we are going, do we miss out on important truths about the God we worship? Do we rush past learning opportunities? Do we lose out on healing for hurting bodies and minds? The ultimate question, it seems, is this: ‘Am I willing to take the time to stop and listen to the teachers God has placed in my path?’

In my personal and professional life, I carry many preconceived notions. When I began practicing medicine, it bothered me that I spent so much time and effort, learning partial truths. The prevailing wisdom about high blood pressure was that medications were necessary to lower it. If someone had diabetes, medication was required to control the blood sugar. If someone couldn’t sleep at night, a sleeping pill was the answer. The list went on and on.

I began to ask myself why the rates of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and chronic pain continue to rise when more of these prescriptions are being written every year. People are not getting better, and many times we are not even alleviating symptoms.

There is certainly a place for modern medicine. If my patient is having a heart attack, a stent is needed. If the heart is pumping too slowly, a pacemaker is life-saving. But in a large number of cases, there is no such clear-cut medical answer.

It was important to me to find truth. A truth that could set me free from my own preconceived notions, and from the assumptions (often faulty) that are generally accepted as medical “wisdom.” To my surprise, I discovered that the Bible taught me more than my medical texts. I learned the origin of disease. It is the stress placed on the system because we diverged from the Creator’s original plan. I began to search for biblical principles that I could apply to help my patients. This is “Biblical Technology.”

 The more I studied the Bible, the more texts relating to healing I found. I searched for scientific evidence proving the validity of the Bible’s statements, then incorporated these truths into a healing plan. Rest, good nutrition, sunlight, and activity were added to my treatment plans.

Creation was the template, because when God first made the world, everything was perfect. Living contrary to the Creator’s original plan puts stress on the system. This stress might be from our genetics, from poor sleep habits, from failing to get enough sunshine, or from insufficient water intake.

I learned another important medical fact from the Bible. We were designed to love each other. When we don’t love each other, stress is put on the body. The way we think can put stress on the whole system.

As I continued to look for Biblical principles, texts with the word “heart” kept coming to my attention. I was interested to learn what the biblical “heart” had to do with modern chemistry. David’s words in Psalm 51:10 gave me a clue: He said, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

What does it mean to “create” a clean heart? David knew that he couldn’t do it himself. It had to be a gift. What did David mean when he said “heart?” This was written after Nathan had talked to David about the incident with Bathsheba. David’s guilt prompted him to cry out to God with a pleading, a yearning for forgiveness and cleansing. He was coming back to the great Physician saying, “I messed up! Help me. I need treatment. I need healing!”

Was this clean heart that David wanted something about a stent, or a bypass, or some medications? Did David need a transplant? I decided to consult Solomon, since he is such a wise man. He taught me more about this clean heart. “For as he thinks in his heart, so he is” (Prov. 23:7). Clearly, the “heart” in biblical terminology is the place where thinking occurs. It is not the blood-pumping heart, but the center of thinking—the place of reason.

Dr. Hippocrates, the Greek physician, was consulted next. Many of you might be familiar with his wisdom. “First, do no harm.” “The body was made to heal itself.” “Let medicine be thy food.” It is interesting to note that, in Dr. Hippocrates’ time in history, the heart was considered the center of reasoning. David lived about 1,000 BC, and Hippocrates lived about 460 BC.

I ran across a problem. My next consulting physician, Dr. Herophilus (circa 300 BC) was allowed to actually dissect people. He was a physician from the Alexandrian school. Dr. Herophilus proved that the brain, not the heart, was the center of reasoning.

Solomon might be wrong! Hippocrates might be wrong! The center of reasoning is not the heart. The center of reasoning is the brain! I am sure this caused the medical profession some problems. They had to be wondering whether they had a conspiracy theory here, or a new truth. Solomon said it’s the heart, and doctors of the day are teaching in medical school that it’s the heart. Dr. Herophilus must be crazy to buck the established tradition and say it’s the brain!

As recently as 200 years ago, if you didn’t put leeches on a patient, you were considered a bad doctor. In the 1930’s, the Journal of the American Medical Association said that asthma was best treated by prescribing cigarette smoking. If you weren’t putting leaches on people, and having them smoke, you were considered a bad doctor.

Poor Herophilus. He was probably considered a bad doctor; a bad healer. But what will history say about the practice of medicine in 2013? Are there new truths to be discovered? Might these truths be found in the Bible? If the profession is doing medicine correctly, shouldn’t the patients be getting better?

Another door opened for me when I realized there was chemistry that could be learned from the wisdom of David, and of Solomon. There are practical applications. I kept studying the brain. I began to wonder if I would have to find a fellowship in brain chemistry. But I’m too old. I’m married. I’ve got kids. So I continued trying to learn on my own, with help from God. As I reviewed more scripture, I realized that I just needed to substitute the word “brain” or “mind” for the word “heart” in order to understand what the Bible writers were actually talking about. “Let not your [brain] be troubled” (John 14:1). That makes sense. Many today have brains that are troubled and stressed.

1 Samuel 16:7 says, “For the Lord does not see as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart [the brain, the mind].”

“Then I will give them a heart to know me,” would mean, “Then I will give them a [mind] to know me” (Jer. 24:7).

Is this new brain that longs after God something you can create for yourself? Is it something you can earn? The answer, of course, is “No.” It’s a gift. You have to ask for it. God promises that He will give us this mind: “I will give you a new [mind] and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 36:26).

Clearly, there is something inherently wrong with the brain—the mind—that we were born with. We need a different one. Thankfully, there is instruction in the Bible that shows how to get what we need.

I have used the following story from Daniel 1 in support of my efforts to get my patients and others to eat a healthy diet. Daniel and his friends were violently taken from their homeland at a young age. There was no Mom and Dad telling them what to do. But their parents did plant truth in their hearts, or brains, all through their formative years. Now these lads were in a strange new land. Confidence in their God and in the foundation principles of His government enabled them to stand up to the king—to stand up to the president—to stand up to whoever is in charge, and say respectfully and boldly, “Listen, we don’t want to eat this way. We want to have pulse and water.”

This story is about more than food. It is about more than pulse and water. “In all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better” (Daniel 1:20). After only three years of schooling, they were ten times better than anybody else!

Let’s assume that the Babylonian guys were no slouches. Maybe they had IQ’s of 120, or 130. In that case, Daniel and his friends had IQ’s somewhere around 1200! It was certainly not just about the food. It had to be that God was creating a new brain in those young men. There is good chemistry in following the Ultimate Physician’s recommendations.

We were born with an imperfect, genetically stressed, old brain—the David brain. Computer geeks would think of the automatic part of the brain as a hard drive, and the prefrontal cortex as a soft drive. The prefrontal cortex can be re-wired, or changed. The soft drive can modulate the hard drive. The brain has billions and billions of cells called neurons. There are trillions of supporting and connecting cells called axons, and dendrites. Scientists estimate that the number of connections in the brain is something like a quadrillion. I’m not sure I understand how many that is, but it’s quite a few.

Everything in our modern day computers can be tracked. It is no surprise that the God who created us looks on the heart [brain] and sees everything that goes on there. We have the ability to choose how the brain will be wired, because we have the ability to ask for God’s help in the re-wiring.

Let’s check out your brain’s wiring. This is a “fill in the blanks” quiz. Two, four, six, ___. Of course you know that the next number is 8. You knew because your brain quickly made use of a neural connection.

I’d like to teach the world to ___.

Good to the last ___.

For God so loved the ___.

You had no trouble inserting “sing,” “drop,” and “world” in those blanks. These are examples of the way your brain uses neural connections involving billions of cells, synapses and neurons in the prefrontal cortex.

The limbic system is the part where emotions, such as happiness, anxiety and fear originate. When you are frightened, the part of the brain called the amygdala is activated. The amygdala is the alarm system of the brain, and it does amazing things if you have to get out of the way of a semi-truck that is bearing down on you. But if this part of the brain is activated constantly, day in, day out, year in, year out, the harmful stress chemicals make dangerous changes in the brain. Excess adrenaline, produced over long periods of time when there is no real threat, speeds up the heart, constricts blood vessels, depresses the immune system, and activates clotting. Adrenaline can even precipitate a heart attack if the levels are high enough.

Cortisol is another chemical produced by the body when there is chronic stress. This chemical raises blood sugar. Interleukins and cytokines are revved up when a mind is under stress. The vitally important amygdala can also be damaged by chronic stress. Anything that goes against the Creator’s original design can create stress via the amygdala. These stress chemicals, over time, result in physical symptoms. The goal is to turn down chronic stress, reducing the resultant harmful chemistry.

The prefrontal cortex is the seat of thinking and reasoning. The anterior cingulated cortex is the area where empathy, love, and altruism originate. If this part of the brain is underdeveloped, and someone punches you, you retaliate in kind. The anterior cingulate helps us to love our enemies. When someone criticizes or hurts you, this is the part of the brain that helps it not to hurt so much. The goal is to turn down the amygdala, except in actual emergencies, and develop the prefrontal cortex.

PET (positron emission tomography) scanning technology can evaluate various kinds of brain activities. Dr. Andrew Newberg at the University of Pennsylvania has researched brains using these PET scans. He demonstrated that people who worship twelve minutes a day for two months developed the anterior cingulate by growing new neurons. The prefrontal cortex responded with neurotropic factors, which stimulated new pathways within the brain.

Dr. Newberg further observed that, as the anterior cingulated cortex developed through worship, the amygdala became less active in generating stress chemistry. Worshipping twelve minutes a day for two months actually changed the neurons and the neuroplasticity of the brain. The chemicals within the brain changed as well. Endorphin, the feel-good chemical, increases as people worship. Likewise, the damaging chemicals, adrenaline and cortisol, decrease. Newberg also discovered that people who worship in fear, with anxiety, or guilt, did not have the chemical and physical improvements in their brains.

Science is proving that loving worship creates new neural connections and changes the chemistry of the brain. Earlier we saw that David asked God to “create in me a new [mind].” It seems that he was asking God to change the physical and chemical make-up of his brain through worship.

Can you imagine the PET scan of Enoch, who walked with God? Can you imagine his lack of stress chemistry? No wonder he didn’t have a life-threatening disease. Can you imagine the anterior cingulate of Christ? Wouldn’t it be fascinating if a hundred people with different worship habits could be studied with PET scans? This research could help people worship more effectively, and avoid harmful worship. Perhaps the doctor could say, “The anterior cingulate is less developed in your case, and the neurochemistry and neuroplasticity has been compromised. A change in worship is recommended.” Maybe we need to say with David, “Create in me new brain.”

Of course all of this is much more complicated than the examples presented. The bottom line is that I want a new heart, a new mind. When we worship lovingly, our chemistry changes. Helpful biblical technology does exist. I want to introduce this type of prescription to my patients. I want to let people in need of healing know of this treatment.

Matthew 11:28 gives us the first step. “Come unto me.” That means that God is asking us to worship Him, to be with Him, to have a close relationship with Him. He is the ultimate Physician. In Daniel’s case, and in ours, it isn’t just about the food. It is about loving worship of the true God.

The next step: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.” Those who are heavy-laden have the amygdala turned up, resulting in negative chemistry. We have the opportunity to turn down this harmful stress chemistry. Turning our cares over to God will help the front of our brains to grow. This treatment is better than pills or procedures.

The brain was made to worship God. Stress is generated when we deviate from the original plan. When the brain is worshipping anything else, the stress chemistry is activated. Adrenaline, cortisol, and all the bad chemistry and connections are activated. We become like that which we worship.

We often fail to recognize truth because we cling to preconceived notions. It’s time to let go of the errors that keep failing us. God will make sure we can hear His voice speaking to us as we search for Him. He initiates that desire in our hearts to look for Him. He is already looking for us. His voice may not be a Mt. Sinai voice, or a blinding light on the way to Damascus. It might be a still, small voice tugging at your heart—or should I say, at your anterior cingulate.

Let us look to the greatest Healer, the ultimate Physician, for answers to all of life’s questions. He is playing heart-changing music, brain-changing music for us to hear. Are we too busy with pre-conceived notions to search out the truth? If so, we are missing out on the abundant life we were designed to live.

We are in desperate need of healing. Worship is now a scientifically proven treatment. The chemistry and structural changes are more valuable than I can relate. This relationship—this chemistry—gives the power to make the needed changes. Change might come slowly. We might have to come back to the Doctor’s office often. We should seek treatment on a daily basis.

Years ago, Solomon and Hippocrates had preconceived notions about the center of reasoning. I had preconceived notions about healing based on my training. But today, God wants to create in you a new heart…a new mind. He is willing to make an actual structural and chemical change. His ability to do so is now proven by cutting edge research. Don’t you want to pray, like David, “Create in me a new heart”? Ask. Accept the gift. Come to Him. Worship Him. He will be faithful to heal.

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