Who is the King of Glory? YHWH . . . He is the King of Glory. Selah.
Psalm 24

“You get the tattoo,” I told Jason. “I’ll get a nose ring. It’s not as . . . permanent.” Jason and I had decided that we wanted to do something special, something a tad bit monumental, to celebrate debt freedom, our upcoming anniversary & new chapters. We wanted to mark this moment.

So, Jason designed his tattoo, setting an appointment to get inked on March 29. I went ahead and got my nose pierced a couple weeks ago.

Then, something changed in me. The story goes like this:

I had come to God to talk and listen several morning’s ago. My week, for reasons I don’t fully understand, had been filled with anxiety, unrest, fear. I was weary of it, sad about the panic that had begun to define my days. By God’s grace, I quieted myself as birds sang outside my window and the sun kissed a new cerulean sky. And, as I listened, the Spirit whispered silently, “Selah.”

It was a call. A call I wanted to understand and meditate on. So I paused, thinking about what I knew of the word. Then I turned to the Psalms and began a search. A search for rest. For truth. For worship.

What I found moved me so powerfully and in ways I can’t completely describe, that I decided to have the Hebrew word permanently grafted on my right wrist.

So, why selah? Because I desire for my whole life, now to eternity, to be about resting in, trusting and worshiping God.

And why the Hebrew letters? Because it’s the original language in which this word – and so many other life-giving words – were spoken. And because the letters are so beautiful, like a piece of art.

Why the right wrist? The right wrist because my right hand is my strong hand, but even its strength, is weakness. And the wrist because Christ had 10-inch Roman nails driven through His wrists so I might know selah.

Why a tattoo? I have come to an understanding about my “thorn in the flesh,” as Paul called it. And selah is it’s antithesis, it’s antidote. We don’t have to get tattoos every time God speaks a life-altering word to us.  But I want the reminder to rest my anxious heart in the bed He makes for me. I want the reminder to worship God in all my strength and all my weakness. I need selah written on my arm. Beautiful. Permanent.