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Aimee Copeland is fighting for her life after suffering from a bout with a flesh-eating bacteria. Her family is asking for prayers on her behalf.

At this very moment, 24 year-old Aimee Copeland is in a struggle for her life.  After a day of Kayaking in Carrolton, GA, she and her friends adventured on a home-made zip-line.  Aimee fell when the zip-line broke and she suffered a large gash in her left calf.  After ER doctors closed the gash with 22 stitches everything seemed to be alright.  But after new symptoms such as pain and fever developed, Aimee made three more trips to the Doctor’s office and the ER before she was diagnosed with “necrotizing fasciitis.” It’s a flesh-eating bacteria that can destroy skin, fat and muscle.  The microscopic bacteria entered her body through the gash.  By the time she was diagnosed, the fasciitis had spread beyond the original wound into her hip and thigh.  Doctors originally wanted to try to save her left leg, but last friday night decided they had to amputate in order to try to save her life.  They performed a high-hip amputation and also removed tissue from her abdomen.  Even though they were able to remove all the infected tissue, Aimee is having other complications.  She went into cardiac arrest as they were moving her off the operating table.  Though she was resuscitated, her fever has continued.  On Tuesday, a week after her accident, Aimee’s organs began to shut down.  Doctors have given her a survival chance of “slim to none,” but Aimee’s family is holding onto hope and asking for prayers on her behalf.

www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/gwinnett-woman-fights-for-1433852.html

It’s amazing how something so small and undetected could grow so quickly into something that is out of control and now threatens this young woman’s life.  Jesus’ earthly brother, James says that what destroys our souls destroys us not from the outside, but from within.  He wrote, “…each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15, ESV).

Our lives can be destroyed by the forces of lust, greed, and selfish pride.  When we allow these selfish desires to be gratified in even small ways, they take root in our lives and spread like a cancer.  Eventually they destroy us from the inside out.    Don’t harbor these destructive forces in a secret spot inside your soul.  If you do, eventually they will change who you are.  Though no one is beyond the reach of Jesus’ grace, those who indulge these destructive forces can do it till they have no desire to change.  Then chances of survival become “slim-to-none.”  So guard your heart relentlessly!  From it come the great decisions and consequences of life (Proverbs 4.21).

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Prize winner Sharon Jones collected the winning lottery ticket from a trash can full of discarded tickets at a convenience store in Beebe, AR. The Arkansas Lottery Security Chief testified that he investigated the circumstances of the ticket coming into Jones’ possession and that the lottery was satisfied that she had a legitimate claim to the prize. Duncan said that she threw the ticket away only after holding it up to a ticket scanner and seeing the message “Sorry.  Not a winner.”  Her lawyer successfully argued that Duncan had only abandoned the ticket, not her right to collect the prize.  The judge decided that the evidence showed that Duncan bought the ticket even though lottery records and store video didn’t match up to the time of purchase. The judgement against Ms. Jones is going to present a great difficulty in that she has already spent a portion of the prize money on a truck and on cash gifts to her children.

It seems that Ms. Jones is learning a very difficult lesson, and that is this.  There is not anything one has that cannot be taken away.  No matter how firm one’s grip is on the possession…no matter how solid one believes the legal claim is to an asset…no matter how hard one has worked to gain it, one can see it vanish away in an instant with no possibility of ever getting it back.

Though Ms. Jones may only now be aware of it, the truth of this lesson has been taught through the centuries.  Jesus’ words ring true:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Ma. 6.18-20, ESV).

Even though we may be exceptionally shrewd and able to maintain our possessions on earth, even the greatest skeptic would admit that when one dies he must leave it all behind.  We may intend to leave possessions to our loved ones, but we have no control over whether or not they actually receive it.  Furthermore, we have no control over what they actually do with it.  Will they use it wisely?  Will they waste it?

How dreadful it would be to invest all one’s energy and resources into something temporary.  Let us invest in things that last.  Invest in a relationship with God.  Invest spiritual growth through disciplines like prayer, Bible study, giving and service to the church.  Invest in relationships with family, friends, and brothers and sisters in Christ.  They are the only treasures that last.

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