The Tribune

By Rev Canon S

Sebastian Campbell

WILDERNESS is representative of our lives: prepare then, in our lives a road for the lord to travel.

The dictionary defines wilderness as uncultivated, uninhabited, wasteland. Prepare in our lives those areas that lie waste and void of God’s presence.

A few years ago an American newspaper columnist reported on an unusual programme. It dealt with removing unwanted tattoos, especially gang-related tattoos, from the bodies of young people. A surprising thing happened after the column appeared. Over a thousand letters flooded in from young people all over the US asking more about the programme. Because of this remarkable response, the Los Angles School District and a local TV company produced a film called “Untattoo You”. It told about the dangers of amateur tattooing and showed how difficult it was to remove small tattoos from arms and faces and larger tattoos from chests and backs. The stars of the film were young people themselves. They talked frankly about why they were tattooed in the first place and why they now wanted the tattoos removed. The film eventually won a national award and is now distributed throughout the US.

The story behind the film “Untattoo You” illustrates an important point. All of us have done things in our lives that we now regret and would like to erase.

How are we now to prepare in our wasted areas of life a way for the Lord? Can we forgive ourselves of some unfaithfulness, unethical dealing, causing hurt to a loved one, not caring and pulling our best when some loved one who was in great need or sickness, maybe a parent?

There are areas in our lives where we have not done what we should have done; it’s wilderness area. It now comes to haunt us. It is driving us crazy. This is not only true of young people, some who have wasted their parents’ hard-earned money. Some went off to school and came back with a baby rather than a certificate; or gone to some off-the-wall cult that fried their brains. Many older people are also holding personal guilt they need to let go.

I am sure all persons here can recall half a dozen things they did and would like to erase from their lives, forever if they could.

The tragic thing about all this is that so many people regret what they did but don’t know what to do about it now. So they live with the mistake. Whenever remorse or guilt surfaces they do their best to put it out of their mind, but it usually turns out to be a losing battle.

We are all made in the image and likeness of God. We look like God –“Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.” We are all fearfully and wonderfully made. We spoil God’s creation when we tattoo this body. We spoil his image when we tattoo the mind, fill it up with all kinds of evil intent. Paul in Gal. 5:19 writes about tattoos on our communal life. He says we are scarred when we make enemies with one another and fight. It is shown in our jealous behaviour when we become angry and ambitious in the destruction of character, when we square off in cliques of destruction, envy and drunkenness.

The greatest of all tattoos is unforgiveness, especially the inability to forgive ourselves. The Lord cannot come into a life cluttered by unforgiveness. If we can forgive ourselves, then we can easily forgive others. Unable to forgive yourself for some dirt of the past leads to personality disorder; it’s a sham and coping method to put on a good face in public, but we live like a witch at home. Unable to untattoo yourself can cause you to be ugly, unlivable and you don’t know it. And yes, it has led some to suicide. You must be able to forgive yourself if you even expect to extend forgiveness to others. It wasn’t until the Prodigal Son made a commitment to forgive himself that he was able to rise out of the nasty, dirty, stinking level of the pigs.

The good news is you can be untattooed, unshackled; a brand new life in a brand new year beckons us.

A well known novelist, Somerset Maugham, spoke of many of these people when he said: “I have committed follies, I have a sensitive conscience and I have done certain things in my life that I am unable to entirely forget. But I know I have a God of second chances, I can confess, and receive forgiveness”.

1 John 1:8 gives this assurance: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Let us make greater use of the church, commit to getting deeper in the word. Commit to a personal prayer life.

The words “Prepare a road for the Lord” were not only spoken to people of biblical times; they were spoken for you and me.

There are road blocks in our personal relationships. It would be so beautiful to live this life without naggers, backstabbers, rowdy people. Oh what a beautiful life it would be! What a beautiful church and glorious homes. Wives nag husbands out the homes. Husbands ignore wives out of their minds.

The vast majority of crimes are domestically related. Most murders are domestic in nature. Those who supposed to love us the most, hurt us the most. So we row and fight and flam. We live like devils in the homes and flam like angels in public. It’s a tattoo, a cover-up too many carry. We are challenged to convert homes from hell holes to havens of peace where Christ lives.

How, you may ask. Can homes feel like homes, places where families laugh and play together and stop taking life so serious? Can homes smell like homes – a place where mothers/fathers cook and bake and stop wasting money on fast food? A place where we commit to healthy lifestyles and stop being sitting ducks for diabetes type II, hypertension, obesity etc? Can we commit to families in the new year who will worship together and commit to having children and grandchildren active in the church so as to give them spiritual foundations to come up against the devil within the schools, in the community, when he shows his ugly head in gangs. What happened in Connecticut can happen here in the Bahamas.

Homes lack happiness so they become the playground for the devil. We see unhappiness in many faces in the land, in the church especially. A hymn writer once wrote, “Yet in my heart the battle is raging. not all the prisoners of war have came home; they were battle fields of mine own making, didn’t know the war had been won. Then I heard the King of the Ages, had fought all the battles for me and victory was mine for the claiming and now Praise God I am free.”

We don’t have to fight the battles of life. The battle is not ours. We are to live in and proclaim victorious living. Live in relationship with God and proclaim what Jesus told us, “Be of good cheer I have overcome the world.”

Let us make our church the greatest church known in the land. A place where people walk together in love to know Christ; a place where people are busy in ministry not as busy bodies. A church known for people in the word: Bible-toting and Bible-living. A church that grows in love.

The greatest tattoo remover is love. In Gal. 5:14 Paul says, “The whole law is summed up in one commandment: Love your neighbour as yourself.”