Tattoos & Testimonies: The Stone Table

The Stone Table

This is a blog I never thought I’d write.

First, because I never thought I’d be writing blogs at all so, thank you World Race for getting all of us racers on the blogging track. Second, because I never planned on, nor did I think I would ever get a tattoo. Third, because since getting my tattoos I didn’t plan on releasing that information into the social media realm.

Before diving into this thing, I would like to thank Vickie for reaching out and inviting me to share the why behind the ink that is now in my skin. I haven’t known her very long, nor are we on the same squad, but she has encouraging friend who has been an example of bold living, shameless testifying, and pedal to the metal encouragement! Thank you Vickie! The words on this page are a testimony to the Lord, but they are also a testimony to the impact you’ve had on my life.

I would also like to say that my purpose in writing this blog is not to stir the pot, disrespect anyone’s position on this topic, convince anyone that tattoos are right / wrong, nor am I trying to justify the reason behind my ink. Simply and truthfully, I am writing to CELEBRATE Jesus and TESTIFY of the freedom I am currently experiencing in my life. I hope you can read this blog and celebrate with me.

That being said, let me tell you about my first tattoo!
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During training camp, roughly three months before the World Race, my squad was introduced to one another. It’s usually awkward when you first begin to talk to a group of strangers so it is helpful to have some icebreaker questions in you back pocket just in case you can’t think of anything else to say after you’ve talked about the weather. One of these fun icebreaker questions had to do with tattoos and / or scars. It gives people a chance to tell a story around a scar they have or the significance of a tattoo they got. It’s a really fun icebreaker and helps everyone warm up to each other. Eventually the question came to me, “Connor, do you have any scars or tattoos?” At the time I had no tattoos and I still don’t have any interesting scars so I said, “No.” As you might imagine, the follow up question came, “Would you ever get a tattoo?” Again, at the time I didn’t prefer tattoos and I was determined to be one of the few world racers who comes back to America with no new ink (or scars for that matter). So I said, “No.” My squad likes to tease me about this because 30… yep, 30 days into the World Race I went from saying, “I’ll never get a tattoo” to, you guessed it… getting a tattoo.

To be fair, for the past few years I haven’t been against tattoos. Rather, I haven’t preferred them – I didn’t think they were for me. I thought they were tacky, trendy, and I thought it was distasteful to mark one of God’s masterpieces with someone else’s art. Also, I never actually had a good tattoo idea. Nothing was ever original, creative, nor significant enough for me to even consider permanently marking my body with it. Until the beginning of month #2 of World Race that is.
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We were on the crazy bus ride from Colombia to Ecuador and I was passing the time with one of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE reads… The Chronicles of Narnia (specifically, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe). My dad used to read Narnia to me and my siblings before bed, voices and all. I fell in love with the series and would sneak the books out of my parent’s room to continue reading instead of going to sleep. Before leaving for the race, I thought it would be cool to reread the seven books throughout my travels you know, for old time’s sake.

I started with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and found so much commonality with the character Edmund. Edmund (if you’re not familiar) is the character who doesn’t believe his sister Lucy is telling the truth about a secret country hidden in a wardrobe until he finds himself walking through the wardrobe in question and into a wintry forrest. He meets a woman who turns out to be the book’s villain and eventually betrays his three siblings by selling out their location to the woman (the White Witch). Because choosing a witch over your brother and sister isn’t exactly the greatest or smartest thing a person can do, Edmund finds himself, not as the prince the Witch promised to make him, but a slave to the Witch’s bidding.

Don’t worry, I haven’t sold my family to a Witch or anything like that, but I have made mistakes. I know what it’s like to be a captive because I have been a captive to the evil one before Jesus redeemed me. I can relate with Edmund because I am Edmund. I am imperfect, full of mistakes, unable to rescue myself, desperate for a second chance, and in need of a Savior.

Eventually, Aslan – the iconic, giant lion of the series – makes a trade with the Witch and Edmund walks free. What we don’t know until later, is that (Spoiler Alert) Aslan traded his life for Edmund’s. Edmund was a traitor, and in Narnia, every traitor’s life belonged to the Witch. Therefore, in order for Edmund to live, someone else had to die. That someone was Aslan, the King of Narnia.

Edmund’s sisters (Lucy and Susan) notice Aslan slipping away from the group that night and question him. They come to understand the significance of Aslan’s trade and watch from a distance as the Witch murders the beautiful and noble lion upon a table of stone.

Ok, this is the good part! After Aslan’s death you find yourself staring at a chapter entitled, Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time. This is the chapter I was reading on that bus ride when I was struck with inspiration. I looked at the artwork illustrating the stone table Aslan died upon, and finally had an art piece worthy of a tattoo. 

In the picture, the stone table is not whole, but broken. That is because Aslan knew something the Witch did not. He knew that while every traitor’s blood belongs to the Witch, if someone with no fault steps in as a substitute, then the stone table would break and death itself would be turn backwards. 

BAM!

What an incredible picture and reminder of what Jesus did for us! We who were traitors, deceivers, and slaves to the evil one are able to walk free because Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, the mighty Lion of Judah took our place! He willingly laid down His life, stepping into our sin so that we might be clothed in His righteousness. So that we might be free. But it doesn’t end there. Jesus is more powerful than sin, death, hell, and the grave and He proved it when He ROSE from the dead breaking the curse of sin once and for all! Our righteousness, victory, and freedom is validated because He conquered the grave. We walk free because that which once condemned us… the stone table… is broken.

THANK YOU JESUS!

A few nights later, during our debrief time in Ecuador, our squad mentor asked us write anything we struggle with on a postcard. We were then instructed to let God speak truth into those struggles followed by throwing those postcards into the fire. Classic, I know, but that exercise hit me hard that night. Not because I threw it into the fire, but because I read my postcard out loud to my entire squad. It was one of the hardest and most freeing things I’ve ever done. It was then I decided to get the broken stone table tattooed onto my chest.

Why?

Because I am free. Because the curse has been broken and I am no longer a slave to sin. Because we can be vulnerable and let other people see who we truly are. I used to be so afraid that people would run away, put me down, or look at me with disgust if they could see past my charisma and spirituality. But they didn’t run away. I lifted the veil that night and they stayed, they encouraged me, and they told me they are for me. This tattoo is more than ink on skin in my eyes. It is a declaration. A proclamation to myself that screams FREEDOM! Freedom from sin, from fear, from pretending, from what others think of me, and from any chain that I let bind me. Jesus battled that stone table – that used-to-be symbol of bondage and He broke it! He broke it and transformed it into a symbol of liberty. That’s what Jesus does. In His power He takes what used to be hopeless and completely transforms it. Wow!

The best part is that He does this with more than just inanimate objects. He does this with people too. Aslan did it for Edmund, Jesus did it for me, and Jesus can do it for you too. The Stone Table has been broken, there is no need to walk in bondage, will you experience freedom?

I feel like C.S. Lewis describes this freedom in a pretty awesome way towards the end of the chapter once Lucy and Susan discovered that Aslan though killed, was not dead…

“Oh, children,” said the Lion, “I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!” He stood for a second, his eyes very bright, his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he made a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn’t know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hilltop he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws and catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.

–Connor Gaul, 5th Gen N-Squad