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The True Meaning Of Heart

I didn't know him. He wasn't a relative. But I would make a five-hour drive to Charles City, Iowa, for a memorial service honoring a 15-year-old whose sacrifice would give life to five others.
 

Logan Luft -- a wrestler, outdoorsman, and excellent student -- would be declared brain dead after an ATV accident on July 4. When he had acquired his driver's learning permit, he chose to be listed as an organ donor. His family would honor that request, and his liver, pancreas, and kidneys would give new life to four individuals.

And his heart? His strong, healthy, athletic heart would give life to a 7-year-old girl. "Donate life" was more than a phrase to the Luft family.

But a big, loving heart wasn't limited to him alone. An older high school wrestler, Michael Millage, gave two of his own gold medals to the family -- medals which Logan would wear and with which he would be buried. Medals which once felt the triumphant heartbeat of victory would be placed over the chest where Logan's donated heart once beat.

The word "heart" is often used as a metaphor when describing a person's goodness and generosity. Both of these boys clearly had heart in abundance. May we learn from their example, and demonstrate it daily in our own lives.

 I'm Jim Kline, and that is my perspective.

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