Category: Body Image

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Body Image Canada Clint Gospel Spiritual Growth

Living With No Curse Tattoos

During the summertime when you go to the beach, the lake or the pool, you see a lot of tattoos. It’s like people have been run through the silkscreen press before they can be let near the water. Now I might not prefer tattoos for myself (though some are quite artistic), but it’s pretty clear to everybody at the beach that there are those who have them and those who don’t.

No Curse Tattoo is Pretty

There is another tattoo which all people have. It’s the tattoo of the curse that is etched upon our souls. Everyone has it. No curse tattoo is pretty. Each one is ugly and permanent.

The source of this curse tattoo comes from the earliest days of our world. Adam and Eve, the first human beings had untouched skin and clean souls. They were created pure and good with no curse to be seen.

But in the third chapter of Genesis, we are told what happened when Adam disobeyed God and rejected God’s creative plan for his life. Adam ate from the fruit which was forbidden, having dropped the ball on all of his responsibilities, leaving Eve to fend for herself against the deceptive enemy, the serpent. The result of Adam’s sin was a permanent consequence. It was something which was more indelible than anything you get in a tattoo parlour. It was a curse.

And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.

Genesis 3:17-19

No Curse Tattoo Removal Kit

So there is no getting away from this tattoo stamped on all the race of Adam’s children. We all have the stamp. What it means is that we spend our days in survival mode hurting and being hurt in a cursed world, living with the fear of death, because we know we will die. And that’s just the beginning of the curse of death leading to an everlasting hell.

There is no curse removal that can be found in all the history of human invention. You can’t remove the curse like you can a tattoo.

I remember standing in line at the store and seeing a young man who had just had his tattoos removed. He was a young Hutterite man I knew and I asked him why his arms were openly covered in oozing pus, dead white cells and scabs. He told me that he was marrying a Hutterite girl and that he needed to remove his tattoos in order to be let back into their Colony.

Tattoo removal is painful but possible. No curse removal is humanly possible. If it was, it would surely be painful too. People have been looking for millennia but there is no curse removal kit.

Curse For Us

Because there is no known solution to the curse tattoo we all have, to find a true cure would be the best thing in the world. Surely it would involve pain and it would need to be applied. But if it worked it would be the best news ever.

Thankfully there is a solution. It doesn’t come from human creations but from the mind of God. Here is the fine print on the label of this curse removal kit:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

Galatians 3:13

When Jesus Christ was crucified, he substituted himself for curse tattooed people, even though the skin of his soul was an impeccably pure canvas.

But Jesus took on our tattoos. Etched and pierced with them all. There was no fallen ink left that he didn’t take upon himself. And he took them to the grave with him. Jesus the incarnate Son of God died according to the flesh, having received the full consequence of the curse upon himself.

The God-ordained curse removal kit is summed up in this label:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Cor 5:21

No Curse Anymore

The effectiveness of this curse removal is that in heaven, no curse tattoos can be found anywhere. This hope is for people who feel stained by sin, who have been inked by the sin of others, or who have been spreading their own curse tattoos on every relationship they touch.

All that is required is to trust in what God has provided. Jesus suffered the curse of death, and rose from the dead on the third day so that his curse removal kit can be applied. It works!

And for those who rely on this curse removal formula, namely trusting in Jesus himself, there is an amazing promise. In the book of Revelation it says:

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

Revelation 22:3

The hope of heaven is that there will be no curse forever. The fallen ink of this sin-stained world will be no more. Those who have taken the generous application of God’s curse removal plan will enjoy having their souls clean and healed in the glow of God’s glory. That will be more blessed than life on any beach.

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Body Image Christel Creation Home & Health Spiritual Growth

What does a Pilates Class have to do with Intelligent Design?

I remember a while ago how I had to study anatomy intensively in order to get my Pilates teacher training certification.

The intricate and complex design of the human body was a little overwhelming to comprehend. Having barely scratched the surface of the muscular and skeletal systems, I was struck by how each of the many muscles, ligaments, tendons and bones are integrated so perfectly for the human body to function.

Each detail has a reason behind it. There is a distinct purpose in the masterpiece of the human body. The study of anatomy points strongly to a Designer. I recall how the Pilates instructor said on the one hand, “We don’t really need the psoas minor anymore, it was only necessary when we walked on all fours”, yet on the other hand could say, “The way the femur attaches into the hip socket is a genius design.”

Later another student asked, “Why is the lumbar spine designed like…um…I mean…whatever you believe…what is the purpose of its limited range of motion in rotation?”

As we saw the purpose and function of everything, it was pretty difficult to talk about the human body as a mere random chance. Presupposing evolution made it hard for anyone to ask “why?” without contradicting themselves.

Psalm 139 says:

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

Psalm 139

Creation undeniably points to the glory of the Creator. What joy to know that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” in a way that transcends even our profound physical make-up. Studying anatomy has helped me appreciate again the wonder of God having “intricately woven” us in secret.

Who can comprehend the greatness of the mind of God?

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Anxiety Body Image Christel Spiritual Growth

John Newton, Marie Kondo and Reflections on the 10-Year Challenge

Photo by Ethan Weil on Unsplash

My Instagram feed is filled with people posting their “ten-year challenge” photos. I like comparing the photos as much as the next person. While most of this comparison may be an exercise in vanity, there is something inspiring about seeing someone who looks better than they did a decade ago. You can imagine the effort and self-discipline it took for them to make progress in their health and wellbeing.

When I look in the mirror, I’m aware that I won’t win any 10-year challenge. The lines around my eyes are deeper and my body is weaker. But to be honest, it doesn’t bother me much. Looking back on the last decade, the deepest, most ubiquitous emotion I feel is thankfulness to God for all He has done for me.  

I recently Kondo’d my closet, clearing clutter and reviving treasures that haven’t seen the light of day in years. I found an old journal from nearly a decade past. For days, I couldn’t bear to open it. The raw, vulnerable words of my angsty twenty-something self didn’t beckon me to read.

But this morning curiosity got the better of me. Who was I then? What’s changed in a decade? Turns out I’m the same person. And also not the same.

I still have my greatest hope in Jesus Christ and his redeeming work for me. I still struggle at times to “put off” my old self and “be renewed in the spirit of [my] mind”(Ephes. 4:22-24). My biggest disappointment was that I still struggle with anxiety. But by God’s grace a few things have changed.

First, I have tasted suffering and felt more resistance to my faith, and yet God has held me fast through it all. When anxiety rushes in–and it still does–I’ve got something solid to grab onto so that I’m not pulled away in its current. I’ve got another decade’s worth of love, trust and relationship with God, and because of this shared history, my sanity returns quicker and truth resonates deeper. This decade has taught me to move forward in faith despite the fear that wants to cripple me.

Second, I’m gentler with myself. This is a tricky one because I don’t mean to imply that I’m gentle with my sin. I still hold to John Owen’s oft-quoted mantra: “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Romans 8:13 makes it clear that we must put sin to death by the power of the Spirit, but sinful impulses don’t die in the blink of an eye. It takes a lifetime of resistance. And yet my twenty-something self held punishingly high standards for perfection in this life. Thank God that He is pleased with our best efforts, however imperfect (e.g. 1 Tim. 2:3, 1 Thess. 2:4), and he doesn’t require perfection before He can use us!

I see this John Newton quote cycle through social media every so often. Each time I see it, my scrolling finger is forced to stop because Newton’s words resonate so deeply. They express a healthy understanding of how both sin and grace inform Christian identity.

I am not what I ought to be,

I am not what I want to be,

I am not what I hope to be in another world;

but still I am not what I once used to be,

and by the grace of God I am what I am.

For those of us who feel our “ten-year challenge” photos aren’t up to Instagram standards, all is not lost. If we have grown in godly character, the deeper lines on our face are not something to mourn. We are a decade closer to who we ought to be and want to be. By God’s grace I am what I am and His grace is enough (1 Cor. 15:10, Rom. 8:1).