Being a Permanent Marker in a Dry Erase World

When our plane landed at 12:30 this morning, I felt a wave of emotions. Steve and I had flown to my hometown in New York for the weekend to surprise my dad for his 65th birthday. The weekend was blissful, partly due to the fact that my in-laws were incredibly gracious and kept all seven of our children so that we could travel alone.

(So basically, my husband now knows that he doesn't have to rent a hut on the ocean in Bora Bora to make me feel like I've been on a vacation, he just needs to take me somewhere where I can hear myself think.)

Though I didn't get a chance to sit and write out my daily journeys with God, He was busy making sure that I didn't forget to fulfill my side of our agreement. In the still and quiet times I felt like He was constantly pointing things out to me, thoughts that I had splashed across before without really diving in.

And so it was that I found myself holding a black permanent marker and realizing that it was what I was striving to be.

Generally I shy away from this type of writing tool. They're so....permanent. I mean, you take a Sharpie marker and start writing, and there's no going back. You better hope you don't misspell a word, or change your thought mid-sentence. And if you realize after you're done that all the lines slant slightly downward? Well, it's just too bad. Because scratching it out leaves more of a mess than leaving it out there for critique.

On the contrary, I love dry erase markers. You make a mistake and with a quick swipe of the finger it's gone. Not a trace. You can fix your error and replace it with something that won't get laughed at before anyone is the wiser. I feel comfortable with them because they give me anonymous chances.

Until a few weeks ago, I was a dry erase marker when it came to my public relationship with God. Oh, I told everyone I met that I was a Christian. I would tell them that I accepted Christ as my Savior when I was 21 years old. But the nitty gritty details of my faith? The Scripture verses that popped in my head when having difficult conversations with friends who questioned the existence of God? I'd more often than not start to write them with my words with the comfort of knowing that I could wipe them away easily if I started making someone uncomfortable. Dry erase conversations; dry erase faith.

I've met Permanent Marker Christians before. I have always respected them. They represent Christ's love to anyone who they meet. And it isn't always portrayed with testimony, or Scripture, or verbal witnessing, but it's a no-questions-about-it attitude that radiates Christ's love. It's the kind of faith where it doesn't matter if your lines are crooked once in a while, or if you miss a punctuation mark. You are no longer worried about looking perfect, no longer ashamed of who you are in Him.

This is the kind of faith God asks from us. Romans 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." (NASB)

In this new generation where tolerance reigns, the world asks all people to be dry erase markers. We are to feel out the responses of our peers before making bold statements so that we do not offend others with our opinions. As long as we don't make waves, as long as we don't push our beliefs on others, our thoughts will be tolerated also.

As a dry erase marker, it wasn't about my opinion of others; it was my selfish worry about others' opinions of me. If friends came to me seeking my advice about a sin in their life, it was easier for me to say what they wanted to hear instead of the truth from Scripture because I was scared of how they would react.

Being a permanent marker is about allowing people to see who you are with no apologies.

All my life I worked to blend in. Now I can't wait to stand out.