Yesterday I got my first REAL tattoo…not henna, or airbrushed, or stickers…a REAL tattoo. I’ve gotten a lot of amazing feedback on it, and it truly looks awesome, haha. I wanted to blog about this because there isn’t enough space on a comment on Facebook to truly explain the significance and meaning behind the tattoo. Before I go into it, let me say that this is not a post about whether tattoos are wrong or not…if you want to read my stance on that, check out the post I wrote about it 3 years ago: http://bit.ly/sGowgI. This post is simply about what the meaning of my tattoo is.

I got a Hebrew tattoo because it looks awesome, but it also opens up conversations I can make with people where I can share the gospel without it being obvious what the message of the tattoo is. The only reason I got this tattoo is so that I could use it as a tool to share the gospel and remind myself of who Jesus is and what he has done. The Hebrew word is “Hamnatseach” (hom-nat-seka), which literally translates into “the one who has overcome.” I got it on my wrist because that is how Jesus overcame…by being crucified and having nails driven through his body. Originally, I wanted to get Job 31:1 which says, “I have made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a woman”, because that is the biggest sin I struggle with and it was repenting from that which led me to salvation. But then Jesus rocked my world. He showed me that it wasn’t just lust that he has overcome in my life, but everything sinful. That’s when I realized that everything good in my life is because Jesus has overcome its enemy. He hasn’t just overcome lust; he has overcome sin, the world, depression, hate, envy, anger, sexual immorality, greed, etc. He has overcome EVERYTHING! That’s why I got this…because Jesus is the one who has overcome. So any time I am faced with a temptation or a circumstance I’m struggling to go through, I can look down and be reminded that Jesus has already overcome the situation I am waiting to overcome.

The Scripture it connects with is 1 John 5:4-5 which says, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” This verse teaches that Jesus never promised that obeying him would be easy; but serving him isn’t a burden to those who love him because we can always trust him to help us bear it because he has already overcome it. So in this context, the tattoo means, “Jesus has overcome.”

What are you facing today? Don’t worry…Jesus has overcome it.

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