No Regrets
by S.Park
This will be the last time that I even talk about this. I’m so tired of talking and hearing about it. I’m PRETTY SURE that I wrote about this subject before but it got lost somewhere.
I hate it, yes, absolutely hate it, when people judge me because of my tattoos. If I even sense a hint of judgment on your part, I won’t be that nice of a person to speak to.
When I first got the one on the right, my aunt said these exact words to me: “You got a tattoo? Do you know that that’s against the Bible? Don’t you know that your body is a Holy Temple?” blah blah blah. Then she proceeded to grab her Bible and show me the verse which was not only in the Old Testament but did not prove her point as to why I could not get a tattoo. My cousin grabbed my wrist, glared at me and said, “YOU GOT ONE?” A lot of people, over the years, have given me the “I can’t believe you call yourself a Christian and you have tattoos” look which not only makes me angry but makes me want to deck them in their faces.
Do you people even know the significance of these tattoos? Why I got them in the first place?
Coram Deo. “Before the face of God.”
When I tell people what it means, they all have the same confused faces on. What does it mean, their faces ask me. I didn’t elaborate because I never felt the need to and no one really asked me to my face. Well let me elaborate on it a bit on my blog then.
I knew that I wanted a tattoo. At first it was because I thought it was cool but then I realized that there was no point in getting one if it wasn’t glorifying the Lord. I decided against it at first but still did my research, asking a handful of pastors questions about tattoos, doing research on the web…which took about two years.
Then I came across an article written by R.C. Sproul:
Recently a friend asked me in all earnestness the same question. He asked, “What’s the big idea of the Christian life?” He was interested in the overarching, ultimate goal of the Christian life.
To answer his question, I fell back on the theologian’s prerogative and gave him a Latin term. I said, “The big idea of the Christian life is coram Deo. Coram Deo captures the essence of the Christian life.”
This phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.
What better way then to worship and glorify the Lord by acknowledging that my entire life is in the presence, under the authority, and to the glory of God? To remind myself constantly of my acute awareness of his sovereignty and in the submission of my life to the Lord, I decided to get it.
χάρις. Charis. Grace.
It is because of His grace that I am here today, that I am the person that I am. I was running my hell bound race but because of His grace, He pulled me out and now I am running towards eternal life with Him in heaven. I was a mess before He saved me. I am absolutely nothing without His grace. Really, need I say more? Do I need to further explain why I got this one?
I hear this question a lot: Won’t you regret it when you have grandchildren?
No. Absolutely not. What is there to regret when I feel that what I have inked on my body is glorifying the Lord for what He has done in my life?
