Yesterday I had a tattoo done, my first one, it hurt! I got the word Jesus put on my right arm. I was going to go with a greek, hebrew or chinese script, but then I thought I would just get it in English.
What happens if I ever backslide? Oh no... what have i done!!!
My thinking was I am totally in love with Him, so I want His name on my arm. (without wanting to be wierd that statement sounds Gay! do you think men have problems with expressing love to Jesus because he's a man?)
It's only small, basically it felt like someone digging a scalpel into your arm and twisting it around and then once it was finished it felt like I had been burnt by an iron.
Anyway I read this article about different brands by, Neil Boorman, he says:
the manner in which we spend our money defines who we are. This theory isn't exactly new. Thorstein Veblen conjured the phrase "conspicuous consumption" back in 1899 in his book the Theory of the Leisure Class. In this secular society of ours, where family and church once gave us a sense of belonging, identity and meaning, there is now Apple, Mercedes and Coke.
These brands offer us a set of beliefs and goals with which we can aspire to. Is this sounding far fetched? Don't take it from me, here's Kevin Roberts, worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi.
"For great brands to survive, they must create loyalty beyond reason. The secret is the use of mystery, sensuality and intimacy... the power to create long term emotional connections with consumers."
read the full article here
6 comments:
Take a picture and post it, Brian.
Class. I wanna see it!
have fun with the tatt. Mine has started some interesting conversations.. mainly with kids in school who ask why (I talk about belonging, and the Toy Story thing about having who you belong to on you.. mine's on my foot..) .. or with blokes in the steam room.. weirdest one was someone who thought I'd been in a detention camp and had it put on there..
In response to:
without wanting to be wierd that statement sounds Gay! Do you think men have problems with expressing love to Jesus because he's a man?
I think this is a most profound question because of the issues it raises.
1. Regarding being gay, in modern society I think there are a whole load of aspects of masculinity which are currently thought of as "gay", which "hets" tend to avoid for fear of appearing "gay". This causes much confusion, between gays and hets. I think that the underlying message coming from the gay community "but this is the way I got made" is right. The enemy has successfully associated good stuff that God has planted into people with a particular kind of sin. We are currently throwing out the baby (e.g. male to male affection) with the bath water (sin). I hope that is not too succinct an explanation of a very complex subject.
2. Regarding Jesus being male. Jesus is the image of God. As Adam was created in the image of God in the beginning so Jesus was the image of God. After God saw that Adam was lonely he split the image of himself in to two: man and woman. Both contain parts of the image of God but neither are the comlete image of God on their own. Before that happened, Adam was the complete image of God. I believe that when walking this earth, Jesus was a "man" in the same sense that Adam was a "man" before he was split into male and female. That's why he's called the second Adam. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that Adam and Jesus are equal at all, Adam is not God! I am talking only about their gender as compared to ours. If Jesus was male alone then he would not the complete image of God. Rather he walked the earth as a Man in the same way that Adam did in the beginning - free of sin and a complete image of God in a single human being.
So girls, Jesus really does know how it feels to be a woman too =)
I think that the love we have for Jesus is
"tatoo you,
all over my life,
with everything I do,
cause I'm crazy 'bout you"
love. The whole reason attraction to somebody of the opposite sex is so appealing is that they are the other half of the image of God that we're not. Jesus is the whole image of God - no wonder he's so appealing.
To go back to the original question, I think we all have a whole load of problems with a ton of stuff, because we have so many misunderstandings about God, ourselves and the world he created... but we think to ourselves that we do understand. In so doing we make ourselves blind to our own foolishness and poverty. Thinking we already know the truth we never really search for wisdom. Good job we have a merciful and gracious God! But let's not stay poor in our knowledge of him and his ways but press into him who himself is the truth.
I hope these thougts bless you! God and his creation are so much more wonderful and mysterious than we ever dream.
Let's press in.
Love
Rob
Rob can I just say great post, thank you so much. Not sure about the Jesus bit but you've spurred me on to dig deeper. Yes your thoughts do bless me. nice one.
Thanks - you are very encouraging =)
Post a Comment