Tattoos, Guitars and God

Maybe it’s simply a poetic notion but last night while sitting on my front porch playing guitar, I was looking at the moon and realized a couple things.  I was surprised how much light it shines on a clear night and it made me think.  Some of the most honest places in our lives are the darkest, both literal dark like night time but also in the darkest-emotional situations in our lives.  There is something strangely and attractively honest about night time, it is a great encourager of conversation.

A couple weekends ago my neighbors had a big party with a couple kegs, live band and bonfire in the back yard.  I know a couple of the people who live there and many more of the people at the party so I decided to head over.  As I walked around it was an awesome “who’s who of Jeremy’s friends from 1999-2006”.  There were so many people that I was very excited to see, one of them was my friend Jake.  Jake at one point was one of my best friends, an unbelievably talented musician and great artist.  He has his vices, one of which is drinking and by the time I arrived at the party he was very intoxicated.  I met his girlfriend Kyrie and after a couple minutes of discussion with Jake about guitars and music, she asked me about my tattoos.  My tattoos are not a collection of art that I found interesting at the time, they are stories I want to tell and conversations that I want to have.  I began to explain God’s redemptive plan in my life and how this inheritance has unveiled a plan for my life that is infinitely better than my 19-year old rock and roll dreams.

As we started talking about tattoos, guitars and God another friend joined the conversation named Blaine.  Blaine is agnostic and began asking question after question and kept telling me that my beliefs made no sense and that my life was chasing after a fairy tail but his interest was piqued when I agreed that I think ‘religion’ is a very bad thing for humanity, but as I began to explain the difference between religion and Jesus more and more people began to join the discussion.  I found myself thanking God more and more for this situation and just reminded how much God loves and desires authenticity, both of which were prevalent this night.

Jesus said that we as believers are a light to the world, but what good is a lit candle or even the brightest of flashlights in the daylight?

Why do so many Christians hang out in the daylight? Hanging with other Christians where you’re light is pretty pointless…

1 candle can light up an entire room…all of the darkness in the entire world can’t extinguish the light emitted by this one, single candle.

I don’t have most things about God figured out but there was a rhythm that was felt that night, talking with real people about real life and a real God who loves them so deeply.  It has been a long time since I have felt as close to God and his heart as I did in Eliza’s backyard that night.

I believe that Jesus calls us to be converted twice.  Meaning that He wants to save(convert) us from the world where he can teach us about life and God and ourselves much like Peter and even Paul(read into that in the beginning of Galatians).  Then when we finally see ourselves as the adopted children of God, Jesus calls us to go back into the world like Matthew 28 in the great commission.

“7 Where can I go from your Spirit?

              Where can I flee from your presence?

 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

                   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”
                                                              --Psalm 139:7-8

God is in the deepest, darkest places…We are in light as He is in the light…let’s go to those dark places because we ARE a light in this darkest world.