Interesting people are all around us. And sometimes someone will remind us of a great truth.
My good friend and I were in Destin and taking a little time to do some shopping in the souvenir beach shops that seem to be on every corner. Colorful buildings, with water floats outside and racks of beach clothes on display, the stores lured us in.
I found a lightweight sweatshirt that was soft and comfortable looking and took it to the register to see if it might be on sale.
There was a young man with olive skin, green eyes and loose brown curls that he tossed back from his head, working there. “No ma’am, but for a beautiful lady like yourself, I can make a discount.” And he gave a slow smile with his white teeth gleaming.
Now, I know this was his sales line. I didn’t flatter myself that this young person meant what he said, but as we talked I do think he became real. We chatted as I paid for my purchase (at half price, LOL).
I noticed he had what looked like sepia-colored Hebrew or Arabic letters circling his neck.
“Can you share what your ink means,” I asked, hoping I wasn’t asking something he wouldn’t want to talk about.
“Sure, the characters are for being at war with self. They remind me of when I was younger and at war with myself. I was self-destructive and did things that hurt me and weren’t good for me. I did things I didn’t want to do, but it was hard not to do. As I got older, I learned to stop the self-destructive acts. But I don’t want to forget how I was, and don’t want to go back there again. The tattoos remind me of where I have been, and what I have learned.”
Such a wise insight, from the cashier at a tourist shop on the beach, shared in a chance encounter.
Paul tells us much the same thing in Romans 7:14: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. . . . 18b For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing.”
Here is the struggle in the fallen condition of man. Only by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, confessing and repenting of sin, and submitting to God, letting the Holy Spirit work inside us to transform us to become more like Christ as we serve Him, can we hope to defeat our sinful nature.
Paul struggled — a giant in the Faith!
We will struggle, too. But in the end we can win the victory through the victory Christ won over the devil.
I, too, need to remember where I’ve been and what I’ve learned even though I may not have ink to help me do so.
