We have been captivated by the story of the 24-year-old graduate student who is fighting for her life due to Necrotizing Fascitis, a flesh-eating disease. She has already had her leg amputated and stands to lose much more. All this resulted from an accident while zip lining.
Necrotizing Fascitis has a mortality rate of 73 percen t and is caused when a bacteria enters your body from a wound like a cut, burn or insect bite. It can also happen when an open wound comes into contact with saltwater or saltwater fish. It is crucial, according to the CDC, to treat this disease immediately if one hopes to survive.
The Nation is following the story of this young woman, Aimee Copeland.
I cannot help but relate this to sin in our lives. Many times we have open wounds caused by hurts, abuse, gossip, betrayal and more. When these wounds are not given over to Jesus for healing, the bacteria of sin enter our hearts. We feel resentful, angry, or jealous. This sin eats away at our hearts and bodies until we feel like we are dying inside. Sometimes we die a bit spiritually as we let sinful thoughts take over our minds.
As this bacterium grows inside us and sin takes hold, it leads to more sin. We turn to gossip, hurt others and build walls of defense around us. Until we come to Jesus and ask for healing and forgiveness, we will become sicker and sicker. Sin eats away at our souls just as Neocrotizing Fascitis eats our flesh.
Sometimes we just have to let things go. The more we carry around our hurts, the further we become from living healthy lives.
Aimee Copland may not have a choice in whether she lives or dies but we all have a choice if we want to thrive and be healthy spiritually, or have our souls slowly dying.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
I don’t want sin to eat away at my heart.
I don’t want Aimee to die a physical death either and pray for her healing.