Tattoo (pt.3)

So yesterday I posted the similarities between Pastors and tattoo artists. You can check that out below if you missed it. I left out the most important one so that I could expound on it today. Would you agree that it would be quite nerve wracking to tattoo someone? I mean, every stroke of the tattoo machine is there permanently. This is a HUGE responsibility that the customer hands to the tattoo artist. So here's a couple more sobering ways that Pastors and Tattoo artists are similar:

1. We share a high standard of judgement. When doing something of eternal significance we are held at a very high standard. We don't have the luxury of being nonchalant about what we do. Every stroke matters. In James we Pastors are told that we will be judged more strictly. We, like the tattoo artist can't take what we do lightly.
2. If we mess up, it's really bad. The artist adjacent to me when I was getting my tattoo joked with the guy whose back he was tattooing that he had tattooed the wrong name for his girlfriend who was watching. It was funny, but can you imagine!? As a Pastor, people take what we say very seriously. When we mess up, it's not us that suffers the most. It's the people that trust us. That should be a wake up call.

My passion is reaching people who have been hurt not only by sin and the fall, but by people and Pastors in churches that were unhealthy. Probably because I have been there.

I am not there yet, but I want every eternal stroke that I make on people to be as careful and focused as the lines the tattoo artist drew on me.
When I hand my tattoo machine over, I would love to hear "Well done."