selah

This is a post from my tumblr explaining my tattoo, thought I would move it over here.

I thought I would rewrite a post about my tattoo with some thoughts and stuff that I have come across in explaining over and over again to people asking about my tattoo.

I have a tattoo that says “selah” on my forearm. This is the hebrew word for pause, to stop and think about what was just written/ sung. To me this is a reminder to exist in the now and to hear God in all things. A reminder to slow down and to be Christ’s love in that moment. My life is pretty busy with school, work, church, pocket change and just doing a lot of things that are good but it leads to this unending movement and a lack of intimacy and intentionality of the “now”.

So talking with my friend Ben about it he had pointed out to me that selah was actually derived from the hebrew word salah which meant “to hang and weigh the value”, traditionally used in a market setting I guess you could say. Like those things in bulk barn that tell you, you are going to be spending a lot more on this candy then you thought you would. This concept was what the authors of the Psalms were intending. To pause and allow the weight of those words hang and weigh their value. So often in my life the valuable lessons of everyday are missed because I refuse to stop and listen. As John McAuley said to me when talking about it “DID YOU HEAR THAT?”, I like that.

So as a tattoo it is a daily reminder to me to ask myself “Did I hear that?” or am I allowing busyness to drown out the lessons, oppourtunities and beauty of now?