Showing posts with label creative. Show all posts

Funny things wind me up... and I find it a bit much that things put up on facebook can push my buttons. But the other day one of my FB friends asked on her status "totattooornottattoo?".....

With out realizing what I was setting myself out for I scrolled down the comments (as you do on a night when you are lazy and slobby and not going out) and got more and more agitated. Most people just were like "yeh tattoo" but the negative people just had such a way of draining the life out of the thought of getting a tattoo.

Statement such as "they are ugly" "unattractive" were taken way to personal as I will explain in a sec...

But then people started throwing God into the mix.... making statements that lean on the idea that getting a tattoo was disrespectful and ... dare I say sinful! I think this is when my blood started to boil...

Then there was the classic "you will regret it when you are an old woman"...

I wrote a long and slightly rude/over the top statement, but then realized (after i read it out to my very gentle and caring husband and he gave me "the look") that maybe its not a good idea to be so self-righteous on someone else status.....

But hey!! my blog is my space and I am aloud to be as self righteous as I want!

So this is to all the Tattoo hater:

If you are going to tell me not to get a tattoo because you think they they are ugly or unattractive then I think you just know that wrong tattoo artist... I say artist because all the tattoos I have are some of the most amazing pieces art I have ever seen. Not to mention that the person that did the art work had one of the hardest canvasses ever to work with.. MY BODY!! True, there are some pretty grim looking tattoos out there, but if you look for someone who is truly talent at the art of tattooing you are going to get a piece of art that isn't "on" you, but "is" you which I think is a beautiful way to encourage creativity.

Also, I'm going to be honest.... I am a broken person. I a not perfect and I grew up being a hater of myself.... especially my body. I know that God doesn't like this about me, because when he made me he loved the way he put me together. I haven't always respected my body in the way that I should and that reflects in some of my wobbly bits. Plus gluttony is a problem for me... But I think God likes to use humans as He teaches and heals other humans. For me getting tattoos on my body was a hugely healing process. I learned that beautiful things can be on me.... and if you have ever gotten a tattoo you will understand when I say that it doesn't feel like you have a tattoo on you, but that it because a part of you. So having an artist put beautiful things on me has helped me to see that I am a beautiful person. Yes I was beautiful before the tattoo, but in my broken humanness I couldn't see it.... and I believe that God gifted those tattoo artist to help heal me and remind me "My Daughter you are my beautiful piece of art, even more beautiful then that art painted on your body, but when you see it remember you are my beloved masterpiece! And I love you with an UNCONDITIONAL love"

I think the God I have am learning about and loving was first known as CREATOR. I think he is highly honored when humans are creative and when they express that. Marking your body is a serious thing. God even talks about how serious he is about loving us when he talks about "writing us into the palm of his hand" and "writing promises right into our hearts". These are extreme because when we mark our body it does last FOREVER! I would NEVER encourage someone to get a tattoo spur of the moment and with out researching the tattoo artist and parlor that you are getting it done in or examining the reason for why you are getting this tattoo in the first place.... But I still would say tattoos are great ways of marking important moments in life and re-telling stories and our body is a great places to care those stories around.

That is another reason why I love tattoos. They tell a story. And this is another thing I know God loves. God loves stories. He loves people telling stories and the power story telling has to connect people and draw them into life changing experiences. The majority of my tattoos are moments in life when I encountered and Gods blessings for me. When I see my tattoos and when others ask about them I have a great chance to tell people the best love story of all.... the one where God and I fell madly and deeply in love.

I think in the bible there are loads of bible verses that we need to take seriously and the ones that talk about not marking our bodies is one that we should take seriously too, but I feel its bigger than just the act of "marking" your body. God tells us over and over again that whatever we do we just need to do it in a way that honors him and loves him. Even Jesus said that the GREATEST commandment is simply "Love God with all of your heart, mind and soul and Love your neighbor as yourself".... I do that and can do that regardless of if I am tattooed or not.

And just as a side note: for all those haters that say "when you are an 80 year old woman/man you are going to hate how wrinkled and faded and ugly your tattoo is"... Just remember when you are 80 year old your boobs will be to your knees (if you have boobs), your butt wrinkled like a raisin and your face a winkled mess of a life well lives. I highly doubt you will care one little bit what your body looks like.... cuz most 80 year old don't give a damn.... the attractiveness of their bodies is the least of their worries... that is a worry of youth.

So to all the haters.... Just remember the next time you start hating on tattoos and claiming that God doesn't want us to alter out bodies.... then maybe you should make sure you your not dying your hair, painting your nails, wearing make up, shaving or cutting your hair, or wearing jewelry either....

Or maybe just realize that God speaks differently in different times about the SAME PROMISES and that above all we should be seeking to honor him, re-tell his story, being creative, helping heal the broken and be about love. If a tattoo can do that then I say

TATTOO!!!

For those of you who didn't know, Ramadan is a time that Muslim people set aside a whole month to fast and pray. This is really important to Muslim people because the Muslim Faith has 5 'must do' or 'pillars' that help confirm a persons faith and acceptance by God.... and practicing a month of praying and fasting or Ramadan is one of those 5 pillars.

And Also if you didn't know Ramadan is happening right now! From 20th July to 19th of August.

As a Christians, Muslim people should be very very close to our hearts. If you look (and you don't have to look that hard) you will see that our story is one and the same....

Once upon a Bible Story there was a guy named Abraham. He was just your average guy, but God chose him to do something special. God chose Abraham to be a part of His plan to save all the people in the world... (remember when God originally made the world it was suppose to be a place where no bad things happened, but because humans made the mistake of letting evil things (or sin) into the world by choosing bad over God's good i.e. naked man and woman in garden munching down fruit from the tree God asked them not to eat from... #EpicOops... God now had to come up with a way of getting his creation out of the dirty mess we made.)

So back to the Abraham... He agrees that he will be a part of God's rescue plan and then God tells him that the way he is going to do it is through Abraham's family... that Abraham will have a son and that son will have sons and they will have more sons and then... duh duh duh... God will send his own special son through this family into our world to rescue us from the mess we got in.

Abraham was more than happy to hear the plan, but also a little confused. See, he and his wife Sarah were childless and on top of it all God decided to tell Abraham his plan when he and Sarah were much to old to have babies (think of your grandparents and then add a few years!)...

But God told both Sarah and Abraham to just trust him that he would work it out. But ... you guessed it, true to our human nature Sarah and Abraham just had a hard time trusting that God could work this miracle child into their story... So they decided to take matters into their own hands... Sarah told Abraham to sleep with her servant girl and to get her preggo. Abraham did it and the servant girl, Hagar, became pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy named Ishmael.

But this wasn't what God had promised. He had promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a baby... not Abraham and Hagar. And to top it off once Hagar had her baby Sarah couldn't stand the sight of her or the baby and started to treat them horribly (even though this was all her idea to begin with!).

God reminds Sarah and Abraham what he promised and soon Sarah becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby boy they name Isaac. Isaac goes on to have twins name Esau and Jacob... Jacob goes on to have twelve sons who become the 12 tribes of Israel... the 2nd born of this twelve is Judah who descendants have the famous King David (yep the boy that killed the giant Goliath) who's descendants have Mary and Joseph who become the parents of Jesus, God's promised child to rescue our world...

The End....


If only it was all that simple.... but see the one thing that humans keep forgetting is that their actions and re-actions to God's plans have consequences. God is in control of his plan and what is going on, but he isn't a puppet master. He lets us choose what we will do and also the fall out from that. If we choose to get involved in God's plan the fall out is God's amazing blessing. If we choose the opposite it often brings with it issues that make things complicated, but still not impossible for God to work out his plan... but way more complicated.

Remember Ishmael... well Ishmael goes on to have loads of kids too and his descendants believe that Ishmael was the child God promised. This has caused loads of tension between these two families... and that tension has continued as the two families have tried to tell the story of God's plan... one family divided by a moment in time when humans decided again that we knew better than God.

Ishmael's descendants have continued in their faith and are known as Muslims. Isaac's descendants have continued in their faith and are known as Christians. One family broken by humans trying to work out the promises of God through their own power instead of trusting God in his. 


Both believe in the same God, but struggle to clearly understand and see who and what are God's promises. Muslims have missed that Jesus is the promised child because they are two caught up in trying to earn their place in God's story. Christians often miss the full importance of Jesus by failing to make the connection between the Muslim and Christian story of God, as well as failing to honor Jesus through a lack of love and care for Muslims.


So, Why do we pray for Muslim people?

we pray for them because if we look back at the story we realize that they are our closet brothers and sisters.

we pray for them because we realize that, through no fault of their own, they are often mistreated and hated.

we pray for them because often the way Christians treat Muslims completely dis-honors the Jesus we claim is their savior and loves them unconditionally.

we pray for them because they are so near to the story of God that its hard for them to see how Jesus is more than just a prophet but is actually the promised child of their and our great ancestor Abraham.

we pray for them because just like us before Jesus came and took our place, we to felt like it was through deeds and good works that we had to earn our relationship with God and it was hard... even impossible... and we want them to experience the freedom of knowing that Jesus has completed every law on our behalf and we are free now to just be in relationship with the one true God we all love and pray too.

we pray for them because we love them!

Join Colchester Boiler Room on 17th August 2012, 8p to midnight to pray during this season of Ramadan for our Muslim brothers and sisters. We all have much to learn and praying for broken families to be re-united is exactly the love Jesus died for us to show!

message me at rockstartina83@gmail.com to get involved.

I don't know if any of you have become as obsessed with the new TV show "Once Upon A Time" as I have, but woah! Beside pure entertainment I find it an interesting parallel to The Kingdom of God that we read about in the Gospels (Specifically the Gospel of Matthew). See if you can see the Kingdom values that I did.

For those of you who don't know, the concept of the show is based around a character named Emma, who happens to be the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White. However, the twist of this fairytale drama (or "Dram-airy" as I like to call it) is that Snow White's evil step-mother, The Queen, arrives the day Emma is born to steal away Charming and Snow's 'Happily Ever After'. The only way for Prince Charming and Snow White to save their daughter and the Kingdom is to put their daughter in a 'Magical' cupboard where she is transported to another realm where the evil Queen's magic doesn't exist.
When The Queen finds out that the baby has been hidden away she buys a curse potion from Rumpelstiltskin to banish the whole Kingdom to a place where they is no magic. This is so she can take away everyone's 'Happily Ever After'... and thus all the beloved fairytale characters that we know, are cursed to our world and live in town called Storybrooke. The only way for the fairytale character to get their 'Happy Endings' is for The Savior, or Emma (the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White) to break the curse...

Fast forward 27 years and Emma has grown up in our world; completely oblivious to who her birth parents are, the way her life was saved, the place she came from and the place she is meant to be in. Through a long and random series of events Emma find her son, whom she gave up for adoption at a young age, (the young boy was adopted by the evil Queen who lives in Storybrooke and in our 'world' is their mayor). Out of a deep desire to rekindle her long lost relationship with her son, Emma stays in Storybrooke and takes an open Sheriffs job.
Her son found a fairytale book that contains all the fairyland characters and their stories. The show explains that Emma's young son trust everything that is written in the book simply because he believes, a classic child-like trust. Emma on the other hand is not so easily convinced. She constantly is telling her son that the stories are not real. However, her son is adimit that the stories are true, that Emma is a part of the Story, that the Story is not yet finished and that she can play a very significant role in how the Story ends.

Pause

In Matthew chapter 13 Jesus is desperate to get the idea of what The Kingdom of God is across to His disciples. Jesus knew that the hope he was promising His followers was wrapped up in them believing in Him and His Kingdom. So he wanted to teach them what His Kingdom is all about. He knew he needed to describe it using terms and life situations that the people around him were experiencing. In this world we describe kingdoms, cities and fortresses simply by the physical material that has created them or their physical location... but as Jesus describes the Kingdom of God He uses stories that paint a picture, not of high walls or rich markets or  beautiful architecture... instead he explains the Kingdom of God in action, as a living and breathing form of life. Jesus took situations that the everyday normal person would have done to support their life (gardening, making bread, harvesting, treasure hunting, fishing) and explained how these were a reflection of Life in God's Kingdom...  a space for people to mature, to grow, to have good, to be accepted, to be treasured, to be protected. God's Kingdom is a magical place that will exist regardless of weather people believe or not... BUT people can only get involved in this viberent Kingdom if they first choose to believe....

Pause

So what does this have to do with the T.V. series Once Upon A Time? In one episode Emma is getting closer and closer to believing the fairytale stories, but still is keeping a very healthy distance. In once episode Pinocchio (now a grown man named August living in Storybrooke) was reminded that he was supposed to help Emma believe in the Story. As long as Pinocchio helps Emma believe he could be human, but if he couldn't help her believe he would be turned back into a wooden puppet. In one desperate scene Pinocchio/August is telling Emma who she is, how she came into the world and that she has to believe in the Story. Emma refuses. Pinocchio falls over in pain as his leg begins to turn back to wood. In desperation he yells at Emma, "If you wont believe me then you have to believe this..." he then pulls up the leg of his trouser to relieve his wooden leg. Emma walks over and more confused then ever explains that she sees nothing. In shock Pinocchio realizes that Emma's denial to believe the truth prevents her from seeing the reality of what is happening. They both become more confused and desperate.


In the season finale The Evil Queen is beside herself, desperate to make sure that Emma never believes. The evil Queen (who in our world is the mayor of Storybrooke) bakes Emma a poisoned apple turnover. Emma's son, desperate to make her believe in the story, eats the poisoned turnover and instantly falls into a deadly coma. In this life or death moment Emma tries to rationalize all the events of her life only to come face to face with herself asking the question "Are all the stories about the kingdom, her parents, her purpose really true?" An in a moment she decides to believe. A pulse of change instantly sweeps over Emma and the entire town of Storybrook... Through her belief Emma remembers the Story and her part in how it unfolds.

Emma runs over to Pinocchio/August house to find him laying in bed; his arms and legs completely wood. And for the first time she sees the real world she is in. She then realize that she has a part in the Story and if she want to get her happily ever after back she is going to have to get involved...

All this to say, I wonder if Jesus was here in this time (being born in our time rather than 2,000 years ago) if his use of the culture and everyday ordinary life situations to describe the Kingdom of God would go something like this:

"The Kingdom of God is like a fairytale kingdom. A kingdom made for happily ever afters, but trapped in a curse when it was attacked by an evil Queen. The Queen banished all the fairytale characters to a world where they forget who the real King is and who they really are. Under the curse no one believes in their King or the Kingdom. Even when the story is told to them they laugh at it and say it is not true, a story for children, a fantasy, a lie. The more the story of the fairytale kingdom is told, the more angry the cursed fairytale characters get. Even when special characters sent by the King are brought into the story to help them believe and to see the kingdom right in front of them they just can't see it because they refuse to believe. But for those who can be brave enough to believe that a kingdom of happily ever afters does exist and there is a King fighting to bring them back to his Kingdom, their eyes are open to see the truth; the truth of who they are, what they were made for and the Kingdom and King before them. Seeing this truth gives them the courage to claim the happily ever after they were created for."