Last week I stood in line at a local sandwich shop waiting to pay for my order. In front of me was a young couple in their 20s and the woman of the pair was wearing a tank top. I could see four words tattooed on her left shoulder, each on its own line:
Hope
Believe
Imagine
Love
I smiled as I read them and let my mind wander with a general sense of the good feelings words like that make us have. But then something caught me up short – based on the other tattoos the couple bore, chances were that we view the world from drastically different perspectives. I started to wonder what she meant by them? Hope, belief and love all really require objects. And yet, we hear these words used all the time with no direct object expressed.
“All you need is love…” Right? But, love of what? Love for whom? Love of money and of self, love of things and love for stuff — we have plenty of that to go around. Belief in something or someone who fails you is not a good thing — in fact it’s a very painful thing. Holding out hope for something that cannot be will grind a person down. A person without hope will not benefit from just a sense of suddenly gaining general hope in “something.”
But, you see, as Twoists, there is Someone transcendent who is a trustworthy recipient of all of these things: our belief, our hope, our love. In fact he’s the reason we can feel these things. Because He is the Creator and we are his image bearers, we were made with imaginations and the ability to dream and make, to love, and to expect something more than what this fallen world has to offer us.
My train of thought chugged along and I never thought to ask the young woman what she loved, what she believed in, what she imagined and what she hoped for so deeply that it was worthy of a permanent place on her skin. I wish I’d found out if she knew the reason those words resonate in her heart — why they can mean so much to us. I wish I had asked — but by the time I thought of it they were gone and I was back to racing about my day.
My mind keeps wandering back to her and I pray one day she finds out that all is not one. All is two, and the Creator God who existed before all time is the reason words like those in her tattoo can be so beautiful; can create in us such longing.
Provocative post! Perhaps it’s best you did not ask them to explain their understanding of those words. I have done so. When I do, almost always, I’m considered a nuisance. This has led me to accept that such markings are simply advertisements of vanity and shallowness, and the pagan clouds of unknowing that Dr. Jones so eloquently exposes. As you stated, those words are meaningless without objectification. People that display them minus objectification are simply advertising their unconscious godhood most often. They might even consider your interest offensive, because even the most gentle questioning is considered offensive to such relativism.
Thanks so much for your thoughts, Jeffrey. I remain unconvinced that the conversation would have been doomed before it was ever started. And, even if it would have been at least the questions would have been asked. While I’ve offended plenty of people asking about things like this, I’ve also been surprised by how many interesting conversations and short exchanges I’ve been able to have over similar topics or issues…one of my personal favorites being prayer.
My thought is, too, that perhaps causing offense (as long as we are being kind and respectful) is not the worst outcome, given that the Gospel itself is inherently offensive to many and we’ve been told this is so!
At a women’s conference our church held some time last year one of our pastors shared on evangelism and he described finding those to share the gospel with like a process of battlefield triage — when medics go onto a battle field they often do not stop and try to care for every body they see in front of them. They go where they see signs of life. So I suppose questions like the ones I was pondering would be that act — maybe someone would get offended if I asked. But if not? Wonderful — a possible sign of life where a conversation and perhaps a sharing of the gospel can happen!
In this instance, though, I’ll chalk it up to an opportunity not meant to be, and be relieved that I didn’t upset anyone in the deli. 😉
Is there a way I can order a printed copy of Letter to a Homosexual? I don’t have Kindle or any other technology for an ebook. The book sounds like exactly the thing to share with my granddaughter, who has just announced her wedding to her lesbian friend.
By the way, I also would be very interested in the book about Rabbi Paul. I have read Utopia and God and Sexuality and appreciated insights from both.
Please pass this note to whoever is appropriate. Thank you.
Joan Flaherty
Joan thank you so much for your interest in these works! I will email you privately with information for the things you’ve requested. We are looking to get a printing of LtaHF done as soon as we can, as it’s been a very useful and popular tool.