I know this may sound strange but when I am psychologically assessing
someone at the prison, part of my assessment includes considering all the
tattoos they have on their body. Why? Because it is reasonable to conclude
that at some point (even the present), what they allowed their body to be
marked with by way of a tattoo was what they wanted to be known about them.
Does it tell me about their gang? Does it represent a love they have in
Recently I noted one tattoo that said, “Dope life”. I started wondering why
someone would want that on their body. Do they think it is cool? Is it just
a statement of their reality? Are they glorifying drug use? Is it just what
You know, we all have our own “markings”. Whether we have a tattoo or not,
we purposefully spend time letting people know who we are or what we
identify with. We wear T-shirts of our favorite teams or things. We attach
bumper stickers to our cars to tell people what we are passionate about. We
put stickers on our car windows that let people know about how many children
and dogs and cats and parakeets we have. We put flags on out lawn, ringtones
on our phones, “skins” on our devices, wristbands around our wrists, and
hats on our heads that all say, “This is me”. The “spirit” of the tattoo
lives in all of us. But I think it is more personal for someone who wears a
tattoo. It is almost as if they are saying, “This is part of me…part of my
As a Christian I have choices about how I will represent my faith. I have
every one of the above options available to me. I personally have used
several of them to tell the world, “I am a Christian”. The thing I have come
to realize though is that using those things to say I identify with Christ
is easy….and perhaps an easy way out. I hope this doesn’t cut too close to
home but I think sometimes we use these “markings” as a way of convincing us
that we have discharged our responsibility to let the world know that we
believe in Jesus. The truth though is that I don’t think the world cares
about our T shirt, bumper sticker or hat. Through the years the only people
who have ever commented on a Christian shirt I am wearing are other
Christians! The rest of the world….they just purposefully avert their eyes
from me. So if a non-believer does care about my Christian shirt it is only
So what does speak to the world? Love. Humility. Sacrifice. Forgiveness.
Caring for others. These are the “markings” that people appreciate. These
are the markings that make people actually want to be around us or learn
These are the markings of Jesus Christ.
This is how He lived.
This is how He calls us to live.
It is no coincidence that the one who created and still creates everybody
knows exactly what “language” will speak to their hearts and get their
What does God see when he looks at our internal “tattoo” – the one written
on our heart? What does He observe when he watches us interact with others?
Would he say that we are letting the world know that we love Him through our
We might be inclined to dismiss or look down on someone who chooses to have
the tattoo “Dope life” put on their bodies but in so doing perhaps we are
showing our own tattoos of pride, prejudice and presumption without ever
Let’s strive for better markings, shall we? Ones that say by action that we
are Christs and “He is part of me…part of my body…I can’t be separated from
“ < 16This is how we know what love is:
Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives
for our brothers and sisters. <> 17If
anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has
no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
> 18Dear children, let us not love with
For Him,
Rob