Multidrug Resistant Infection

We recently admitted a patient to the hospital with a multidrug-resistant infection (MDRI). These infections can be intense. Since the bacteria have found a way to change and adapt, it severely limits the scope of antibiotic options available to treat a common diagnosis. The traditional, first-line agents were ineffective to address the resistant bacteria.

Clinicians are then challenged to identify unconventional treatment options. We reach back to older medications like Colistin, which due to limited use, has lower resistance rates than agents used first- or second-line. MDRIs are so serious, general practitioners consult specialists in Infectious Disease to provide expert guidance as to the best treatment approach.

Sometimes we face problems in our lives that just won’t go away. We cry about it, complain about it, and fight against it. We discuss it with our friends, read self-help books on the subject, and do all that we know to do…with minimal improvement. In fact, the situation may even seem to get worse despite our best efforts.

Perhaps you’re facing a divorce. Dealing with a rebellious child. Financially frustrated. Looming job loss. Emotionally drained or depressed. Received an undesirable medical diagnosis. In a destructive relationship. Have an addiction that just won’t go away.

It’s time to go old school and grab the one option that will work, the Word of God. It’s time to go unconventional, choosing a different response to life’s issues. It’s time to call in the Expert, who specializes in taking seemingly hopeless situations and breathing new life into it. It’s time to make a strategic and drastic attack on an enemy intent on destroying us. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 reminds us:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ

When facing long-standing problems, difficulties, or struggles, it’s important to be reminded that this life is not a playground, but a battleground. A literal war-zone. We are in constant spiritual battle with a known enemy. And you don’t bring toy guns to a real fight. You don’t knowingly administer resistant antibiotics to successfully treat an infection. And you do not utilize human methodologies to accomplish a spiritual victory. Not if you want to win. Ephesians 6:6-13 tells us:

 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

We must first realize that you and I cannot fight this battle in our own strength. Paul instructs, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” We aren’t smart enough, no matter how much education. We aren’t strong enough, despite how much we exercise. We’re not powerful enough, regardless of our positions, to fight this enemy alone. Even our physical bodies, though built to mount an attack, fighting foreign invaders (bacteria/viruses/fungi), sometimes requires additional medicinal help outside of its normal immune response to ensure healing. The strength and power we need to defeat our very real enemy lies in Jesus.

When an infection is a possible diagnosis, specimens are collected from the infection site to identify if it’s bacterial, viral, or fungal in nature. Why? Without identifying the right microorganism, you risk not treating the infection at all. Ephesians 6:12 first identifies who our real enemy is not. Let’s be clear. Your husband is not your real enemy. Your wife is not your true opposition. Your child might be acting like a devil, but he or she is not your rival. The bill collectors are not your enemy. Our employers, nor our coworkers are our adversaries. People (flesh and blood) are not our ultimate problem. They may be tools utilized at the time to divert attention from the true enemy. And as long as our focus is on a person or a situation, we never get around to defeating the right foe.

Once collected, the lab will perform a culture and sensitivity (C&S) on the specimens. This further delineates not only the exact identity of the bug causing the infection, but the drugs that are the most effective at treating it. Ephesians 6:11b-12 clearly identifies our real enemy as the devil, the adversary of God’s people. He’s described throughout scripture as cunning, deceptive, and the father of lies. He’s the master at remaining in the shadows and diverting attention from himself, so that we perpetually fight each other while he remains unscathed. The root of our problems remain unaddressed because the enemy remains untouched. Thankfully, the C&S of Ephesians 6 has blown his cover and revealed his identity.

My pastor, Dr. Tony Evans, regularly says, “If all you see is what you see, then you do not see all there is to be seen.” In other words, what we physically see worked out in our experiences is only the result of a strategy developed behind the scenes. If, for example, your reaction is solely directed at your spouse’s hurtful words instead of Satan’s long term goal of dividing the family to make your children more susceptible to worldly influences to ultimately destroy their future and deteriorate your legacy, you’ll spend all your time fighting with your spouse instead of addressing the spiritual attack on the family. Don’t get sidetracked.

Paul transitions from who to fight to how to prepare for the fight. Showing up ill-equipped guarantees defeat. Soldiers don’t arrive for battle in formal attire. Nurses don’t enter the room of an Ebola-infected patient in casual clothing. Standard infections require standard precautions. But, we’re in Ebola-type warfare. It requires gowns, face masks, face shields, double gloves, shoe covers, Hazmat suits, and respirators to approach this battle. We can’t get partially dressed and expect to be impenetrable.

Paul specifically instructs us to put on the full armor of God. Not the full armor of human opinion: what my friends think, what my parents taught, what the talk shows advise. But the full armor of God: what He has already declared in His word about your specific struggle, how He instructs to approach this type of problem, seeking His direction exclusively. That’s the only armor He endorses.

Three times in this passage, the phrase stand firm is used. Why not charge forward? Or mount an attack? After all, we’re in a desperate situation against a strategic enemy. How is standing still going to be effective in this battle. Well, the key to answering that question is remembering what we get dressed in…or rather Who we get dressed in. The full armor of God. It’s His battle, not ours.

It reminds me of Moses and the children of Israel at the Red Sea with pharaoh’s army pursuing them from behind. God instructed, “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Everything in them would have wanted to do something. Run! Collect rocks and sticks to be used as weapons! Build a barrier between them and Pharaoh. Construct boats/rafts to escape. But while they’re thinking, “Don’t just stand there, do something”, God essentially instructed, “Don’t just do something, stand there…and watch Me fight this battle for you.” He offers full protection and takes full responsibility for our safety when we utilize the components of the armor mentioned in vs. 13-20, which we’ll delve into specifically next week.

Ever since Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, sin’s DNA was passed down to every one of his descendants. Despite the law that was meant to inhibit it or the judgments that were meant to deter it, sin proliferated in the culture. The sin infection was pan-resistant to “good works”, “self-help”, and “human efforts” as attempts to make us acceptable to a holy God. No solutions old or new were sufficient to address the septic condition of mankind. We were slated for certain death. Eternal death. Eternal separation from God with no hope of an alternative.

But because He loves us so much, He formulated an unconventional treatment. Since man couldn’t reach Him, God came down in the Person of Jesus Christ to decisively and completely eradicate the infection of sin and death. Turns out the solution to the sin infection wasn’t an antibiotic, antifungal, or antiviral. It was death after all. On the cross, Jesus took our sins upon Himself and died in our place. In so doing, He became the only qualified Solution to mankind’s sin condition. When He rose from the dead, He defeated Satan and rendered him powerless over our lives. Now all he has left is the art of deception. So don’t be fooled.

 We do not fight for victory. Jesus did that all by Himself on the cross. When we accept Jesus as the Savior and Lord of our lives, we simultaneously get to experience the true victory He won for us. We now fight from the position of victory. We are no longer subject to the sin that bound us, the temptations that sought to destroy us, or the transgressions that used to define us. Our terminal condition of sin was exchanged for the everlasting life of Christ.