Afraid. Distressed. Panic-Stricken. As she laid in the bed at the E.R., fear overpowered her mind. Mere words alone could not express the emotions that raced through her heart, that cold and rainy December morning.
As the nurses began to prep her for surgery, she noticed the distress on her family’s faces. She tried to restrain the panic she was battling, internally, in her feeble attempt to show strength in the time of pain and anxiety.
Inevitably, the intensity of the moment conquered her facade of strength and she broke. Hot tears fell like a river on her red battered face, and her inner self-was crumbling at the mere magnitude of the situation.
Her pulse raced with utter dismay, as the heart monitor depicted an abnormal heartbeat. She was instructed to calm down because it was essential to have her heartbeat return to normal. But how? She was afraid of the unknown because this was between life and death.
This woman in the story is me. I’m a survivor of Necrotizing Fasciitis, a rare flesh-eating bacteria. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Since 2010, approximately 700 to 1100 cases of necrotizing fasciitis caused by group A strep occur each year in the United States; this is likely an underestimation as some cases are probably not reported.” This statistical data proves the rarity of this infection.
I’ll never forget the external miracle God showed me in a successful attempt to display how inwardly sick my heart had become. What I mean by my heart being sick was God was a spiritual being I spoke to, not a celestial being I lived for.
God used my affliction as a manifestation of how my heart looked to him. I was broken, wounded, bitter, and sought elsewhere for my heart to be made whole.
The shattered pieces of my broken heart seemed to be a permanent settlement for my remaining existence. God used an infirmity to capture my attention because he was calling me to return to his unfailing love. God wanted to heal my heart, not to live in a permanent state of brokenness.
Although I was alive, physically, my heart, spiritually, was dead. God had to revive me. He checked my pulse and the diagnosis: dead but revivable.
You see, in the medical arena there are certain criteria that medical personnel check for to see if an individual is alive or dead. One of the fundamental methods is checking their pulse. If there is no pulse, then they start CPR to see if they can resuscitate the individual back to life. The hope of a person resuscitating lies in the hands of the person executing CPR.
I was the victim and God was my hope, and He knew that my healing could only come from Him. God began to perform CPR as I lied spiritually dead and, thankfully, revitalized my heart.
Within my journey of healing my mangled heart, I began to fall in love. I mean, sincerely fall in love with God. He no longer was just the creator of the world I existed in but He was my personal redeemer. He began to illustrate the vitality of being spiritually healthy by teaching me how to incorporate spiritual disciplines in my life. Through his teachings, he began to take the fractured parts of my heart and heal me.
And just like in the spiritual sense, God desired for me to live physically healthy. I began my fitness journey and God taught me how to live a healthy life that pleases him. Little did I know, “HeartBeat” would be birthed through my personal struggles.
You see, God created us to bring Him glory, which means every aspect of our life must please him. We can’t be physically fit and lack spiritual maturity. The physical and spiritual aspects of our life go hand in hand. God healed my heart, but He also began to show me how my body brings Him glory too.
Through my hurts, struggles, and, often times, resistance towards the things of God, I finally surrendered to Him and He healed my life. You see, it’s vital that we continuously check our pulse to ensure we are alive and not spiritually dead.
We must lay before God daily and ask the Lord to evaluate our hearts and allow Him to work on us.
Checking our pulse daily means giving God access to the depths of our heart and becoming more like him.
We must also remember to be physically healthy as well.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20:
“Don’t you know that your body is a temple that belongs to the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit, whom you received from God, lives in you. You don’t belong to yourselves. You were bought for a price. So bring glory to God in the way you use your body.”
Let’s honor our Savior with our physical health and our spiritual well-being! We are on this journey together! If you are ready to embark on a life-changing endeavor, join the team! Let’s be physically and spiritually fit for our God.
Welcome to “HeartBeat”!!