you can't forget a bowling scar

one time at the bowling alley, i split my lip open and got 18 stitches. it was stupid, i know that now because hindsight is 20/20, but it seemed fine at the time. we decided to do this thing called "spin bowling" which is basically spinning on one of the spinny chairs until your dizzy, then bowl. i was spinning, and the chair fell and i landed face first into another chair.

my friend andy is the kind of guy that loves to get stuff for his car to make it faster/louder/more awesome. he drives usually very fast. i picked him to drive because i knew that he lived for these kinds of moments where he actually needs to drive fast. so he got me to the emergency room extremely quickly. it was great. i have a scar on my lip now, it's not totally obnoxiously noticable, but i see it daily, and know it's there. every time i see it, i remember what happened.

in his letter to the galations, paul mentions his "brands of the slave of Christ". he's not talking about literal trademarks tattooed on his forehead, but the scars on his body from obeying the word of God and following Christ. They are the markings of physical harm. this is important that he mentions this. this is a way of reminding the galations that following Christ isn't easy and you have to prepared to be inflicted with actual bodily harm because of it. william barclay puts it really freakin sweet

"it is when me see that we are prepared to suffer something for the faith which we say that we hold that they will begin to believe that we really do hold it. if a thing costs nothing, men will value it at nothing."

when we step out faith and make sacrifices in our own life, it shows that what we follow and believe and know, is that important to us. it means so much that we are willing to make bold steps in faith of sacrifice and of love because we know that what we follow is the truth and worth more than we can offer. when we know, and i mean really know this, thats when we are ready to bear the brands of Christ. not just physically with scars but in what we do daily.

like cutting portions of your day to spend time in the word, or making promises to God and keeping them. i know that i have problems with that especially. i'll tell Him that i'll read the word a certain night, then my friends will be going to disneyland and i'll end up going. if we don't have anything change in our life when we know Christ, what does that show the people that don't believe?

i could imagine that everytime paul saw one of his scars on his body from being wipped or beaten or stabbed or whatever because of his belief in God, that he would remember when it happened and why. it would remind him that he lives for something that is worth getting scars for.

"If after all that has happened to me I were still trying to curry favor with men, i would not be bearing the brands of the slave of Christ."
galations 1:10