deeperthanwar

I've been out the shop for more than a month now.  It's been good to take a little break after everything that happened, and to take stock of where I'm at, and where my family is at.

This past week, I've done a couple of pieces for friends at home.  The sun room that I'm using isn't purpose built, but it is certainly doing the job for now.  It is bright, clean, and calm. I've not been advertising myself as an artist, but the work keeps coming in anyway.  It's that time of year again, I guess.  My classy new tattoo bed should arrive in the next few days, and that will make it easier.

This summer, we're transforming our spare room into an awesome, professional private studio.  We have done our research and you can expect it to be pretty cool.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about finishing off my sleeve.  The upper arm is in desperate need of more work, and I've just about done the drawing now.  My good friend, Kevin Smith is going to work on it, when he returns from some crazy extreme sports in Arizona.  I can't wait to see the finished product.

Maybe that's where I'm at with my career in tattooing at the moment.  I just can't wait to see the finished product.  I don't know exactly how everything's going to shape up yet down the road. I've enjoyed the last few weeks, taking a break from tattooing, because It's given me a chance to learn a little patience.  Everything is going to come together, but for now, I think I just need to let God work it out.

It's Easter Sunday today, a day to remember that Jesus is not dead, but that he rose again from the dead so that we can have eternal life.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing - we can look at what He did on the cross, and recognise it as the ultimate sacrifice.  Jesus died to defeat death.  But we only know that he was victorious, because he was resurrected.  To be one of his disciples, close friends, family, on the day he died would surely have been torture. 
I suspect that, in their position, even if I'd had faith that He would return from the dead, I would have really struggled through those couple of days having seen him publicly executed.  Watching all that I'd built my life around dying in front of me.  I would almost certainly have felt like I was in the pit of despair.

It's so much easier when we look back after the conclusion of an event to see that it was all going to work out in the end.  Right now, I'm waiting for the time when I can see how it all works out.  But the good thing is, I know that Jesus was raised from the dead.  The situation now is infinitely better than it was before He died; before it seemed there was no hope.  And that's what I'm looking forward to.

Peace.