So for month five we were in the Philippines and the big thing for Racers to do on the race, either in the Philippines or in Central America is to get a tattoo. Well one of my teammates and several others got one and for some reason I got really caught up in the idea of getting one. Especially, since I was there at the tattoo shop when my teammate got hers. Tattoos are making a comeback in present day culture. From teenagers to housewives, they are appearing everywhere, even among Christians. Even with all that said, honestly I couldn’t think of anything worth writing on my body with permanent ink. I mean I know people that get their names, parent’s names or faces, kids’ names, cartoons, crosses, bible verses, animals they like, flower, butterflies, etc. You name I’m pretty sure someone has it, but none of that stuff made me wanna jump in a chair and let a man write on my temple that God has given me.
Well that was until I looked around on the walls of the tattoo shop and saw a phrase that read, “Brought by Blood”. My heart completely dropped and I really didn’t know how to feel. Yes I knew I was in a tattoo shop of a man that was Christian and his work is his ministry but I never in a million years thought I would see something that I would actually want. So I was faced with a decision…..Should I stop the production and get this tattoo right now??!!! I was completely sold on the idea of getting this tattoo….I mean it had to be the greatest tattoo I had ever seen, and it was something that would be so unique to the world but yet it shouldn’t be.
We were bought by Jesus’s blood over 2000 years ago. Jesus paid the ultimate price for you and I to be cleared of all of our sins. He laid down his life and died a horrible death so that you and I could have life and the bible say’s “Life more abundantly”! What’s so great about it is that he did it just because he loves us. I can’t even begin to understand that….he loves us even though we are liars, thieves, back stabbers, hypocrites, fornicators, adulators, and the list goes on and on…but none of that matters to him. All he wants from us in return is our love, praise and to accept him as the one true and living God. So my thought was that if I got the tattoo the message of it would never change, my feelings towards it would never change. It’s a constantan no matter how I look at it, or try to add to it or take away from it; it will always be the same, because it is a constant truth. WE WERE BOUGHT BY THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD.
Any ways after going through all that in my head and know that I wouldn’t get tired of the message behind the tattoo; I still couldn’t bring myself to getting it. I have prayed about it and God hasn’t given me an answer so until he pulls my string to do something as drastic as that I want have one. So for now I will just live with the words tattooed on my heart.
