A spontaneous tattoo
A helpful reminder from Colorado
To celebrate Abbi turning 40, her and I went to Colorado with 2 couples and got back on Sunday. I definitely didn’t plan on getting my 2nd tattoo while I was out there, but the inspiration struck and I went for it. Abbi and two of our friends were already planning on getting one and when I went into the shop, this particular drawing stuck out to me.
Not only do I love the mountains of Colorado, but I also love what they’ve come to represent for me. Like many people, I experience a consistent and nagging aversion to doing hard things. I sometimes even pride myself on my ability to find the easiest way of doing something and while that’s not always a bad thing, it can be a very slippery slope. There are certain difficult things in life there are no shortcuts for. In other words, there have been and there will be difficult things God calls you to go through.
Obviously, God doesn’t do this because he’s mad at us or because he enjoys seeing us suffer, but sometimes the best thing for us is to walk through difficult trials. While this thought makes me uncomfortable, I have nevertheless found it to be true. I firmly believe God cares more about who we’re becoming than the specific things we do. 1 Samuel 16:7 says, “The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” The Lord looks at the heart. God sees every hidden motive and agenda, and while he isn’t demanding instantaneous perfection, he’s still very much committed to our ongoing character transformation.
While we were in Colorado, there are certain views we were able to see only because we chose to do the hard hike to see them. The change in altitude and relatively steep incline had even the best of us huffing and puffing. That being said, I don’t think a single one of us would go back and change this aspect of the trip.
The bottom line is God cares way too much about you to leave you camped out in a false sense of comfort. Honestly, I would probably stay there forever if I could, but I’m thankful my heavenly Father cares too much about me to let this happen. God cares about the people we’re becoming and knows the kinds of peaks and valleys we’ll
need to traverse to become those sorts of people.
I hate the part of me that wants the easy path, but I don’t think this temptation is going anywhere anytime soon. Predictably, I sometimes choose wisely and other times just drift along with the current. The hope is that this forearm tattoo will serve as a daily reminder to consistently choose the difficult, more rewarding options in life. While you obviously don’t need to get a tattoo, you would do well to daily remind yourself that while the good news of Christ is opposed to earning, it’s not opposed to effort. In other words, we can never earn God’s grace, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be effort involved in receiving it.