Meditating on a Tattoo

Have you ever meditated on a tattoo?  Last fall I did while hiking with my son on the trail to the top of Half Dome Rock in Yosemite, CA.

We had just caught up to a group of hikers.  Just in front of me was the back of a burly man with huge arms bulging out from his t-shirt.  His left triceps had tattooed in large letters the word “LOVE” and his right triceps had the word “LIFE.”

“Love life!”

We all want to love life.  So it’s good to ask ourselves, “Do I love life?  What would help me really to love life?”

Or maybe before we follow the crowd seeking help from experts on how to love our lives more we ought to pause and think about what it really means to love life… 

Perhaps this man’s tattoos mean, “Love your life.  Get all you can from it to make you happy.  Do whatever pleases you.  Get all you can.  Get ahead.  Get to the top.  It’s your life and the world is your oyster – go for it!”

Jesus had something surprising and contrary to the prevailing wisdom to say about loving life.  (Typical of Jesus!)  In fact, the ironic thing is that before I saw this man’s tattoos I happened to be meditating on Jesus’ words about loving life:

I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me (John 12:24-26).

What timing God has!  To think that I was meditating on the words of Jesus about loving life when all of a sudden there they were tattooed on the triceps right in front of me!

Hate Your Life?

But Jesus gives a very different meaning to the words, “Love life.”  He says to us: “Don’t love your life.  If you love your life you’ll lose it, but if you hate your life then you will enjoy life with me forever!”

What does Jesus mean in telling us to hate life?  Is he being insensitive or harsh?  Is he just trying to shock us into listening?  No.  No.  He’s teaching us that the only way to succeed at living in his kingdom (and the only way to live with soulfulness) is to put him first above all things and in all things. 

Relatively speaking, we need to hate our lives in this world in order to love God – God is that great and glorious!  And if we will lose our lives for Christ and his kingdom then we will discover the joy of participating in the abundance of God’s glorious resurrection life now and forever!”

O to behold the majesty of Jesus and be captivated!  O to realize that the opportunity of a lifetime awaits us: Jesus has invited you and I to live our daily lives as his apprentices in the kingdom of the heavens!  It’s worth re-orienting the way we think and re-organizing how we live.  It’s worth hating our life in this world to give ourselves completely to loving Jesus and his kingdom.

A Christ-Like Life

Practically speaking, what does this look like?  How do you obey Jesus’ words on hating your life in this world in order to love your life with him?  In a word: self-denial. 

To hate our life is to deny ourselves the things we want that hinder us from loving Christ.  It’s to join the Apostle Paul and “count everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus [the] Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Jesus showed us a life of whole-hearted devotion to God.  He demonstrated what it looks like for a person to sacrifice self-interests in order to love God and other people.  He did this supremely on the cross, but he did it in countless “little” ways each day of his life of worship, prayer, and service.

When we deny ourselves something we’re identifying ourselves with Jesus’ way of sacrifice, sharing in “the fellowship of his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10), which means that the loss or pain we experience is drawing us into a greater appreciation for and attachment with our Lord and Savior (what a blessing this is!).

Exercises to Follow Christ

To live out this Christ-like attitude we need to practice it.  We need to go into training with Jesus so that we learn by experience what it’s like to lose our life for Christ and find true life, to accept a loss or pain and discover a greater joy on the other side.

I invite you to join me in trying some of the practical ways that I have experimented with hating my life in this world in order to love my life in Christ:

• Take a Sabbath. For your Sabbath don’t do anything productive – just enjoy being with God and loved ones, just pray and play! You know you’re appreciating a Sabbath rest when you say, Ahh! It’s true! My Good Shepherd restores my soul!

• Fast from Food. Abstain from eating solid food or certain foods for one or more meals while meditating on Scripture.  You know you’ve learned to fast when you discover that fasting is feasting on God's Word!

• Listen. Be a good listener in a conversation or meeting.  Practice silence.  First practice being quiet in solitude and then practice it in a conversation or a meeting with others.  Don’t jump in with your ideas, but let others speak.  You know you’ve learned to listen well when you readily promote someone else’s idea or welfare above your own.

• Bless Someone who Offends You. Love the person who mistreats you.  (This doesn't mean being a doormat!) You know you’ve loved an offender when instead of getting angry or depressed about it you naturally bless him or her, just as God does for you.

Or you could just tattoo your triceps with the words: “Love Jesus!”