No Matter What

Yesterday a friend told me about meeting a man who had the words, “No matter what” tattooed on the inside of his left arm, wrist to elbow.  The situation was such that he did not feel comfortable asking the man for the details – the why's and wherefores of this cryptic message.

Then this morning, in the devotional booklet I'm reading for Lent, Albert Holtz, a Benedictine monk, entitled his meditation, “hoping no matter what.” He told a story of his visit to the building in Amsterdam where Anne Frank was hidden with her family during World War II.   He quoted that oft repeated segment of her diary: “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are good at heart.  If I look up to the heavens, I think this will come out all right…”

I have learned to pay attention to such synchronicities.  There is something to be considered in that phrase, “no matter what.”

I wonder about the motivation of the tattooed man – why did he feel so strongly about those three words, that he had them permanently affixed to his body?  Were they reminders of something positive, inspirational, like Anne’s stirring words ... or perhaps, a grim promise of eventual revenge, of retribution, a cue to “stand against the world”, no matter what….

My first association to these words, of course, is the promise made by the Jewish people in regard to the Holocaust – the phrase “never forget.”  But I also thought immediately of the poetry of the Song of Solomon, 8:6 – “set me as a seal upon your heart, a seal upon your arm…”  And, also from Deuteronomy, Moses’ instruction to the people of Israel, to always remember the greatest and first commandment – You shall love your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might. Keep these words in your heart, he tells them.  “Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise… bind them as a sign upon your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, write them on your doorposts and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:7-9)

It does not take much of a leap of imagination for me to picture those words tattooed on Jesus’ inside forearm, and to see him setting them as a seal upon his own heart, in light of what he sensed he would have to face in that last week of his life.

The words beg a question: what might they mean to me? to you?  What do we want to do or be, to remember to feel or act on, “no matter what?”  The list could be endless:  hope, love, serenity, wholeness, generosity, truthfulness, justice, strength, compassion, or on the other hand, vengeance, suspicion, self-protection, self-promotion, self-absorption, self-righteousness….

What is the most important, most significant, most essential thing to us…"no matter what"?