Good morning. I met Mike Potter when I was called upon to provide “clergy” services for a friend of his who had died. Mike and the deceased belonged to the same motorcycle club in South St. Paul. As I got to know him, Mike shared with me some of his personal story. At the age of 10 he was a “runner” for a gang. By the time he was 16 he was into some very bad gang related behaviors, including selling drugs. By the time he was 18 Mike was an addict. At the age of 20 Mike had killed someone from another gang and was sentenced to life in Oak Park Heights prison. He served 17 years.
When Mike was paroled, one of the first things he tried to do was to have his gang tattoos removed. It took 3 years, a lot of pain, and his skin was left blotchy, but the tats on his skin were gone, more or less. While enduring the tattoo removal procedures Mike met Gwen, who would eventually be his wife. Gwen, a rather shy woman, was the nurse for the dermatologist who specialized in removing tattoos. Eventually, she found the courage to tell Mike that removing the ink from his skin was only part of the job that needed doing. Gwen is a Christian, and she told Mike that what really needed attention were not the tattoos on his skin but the tattoos on his heart. He needed inner cleansing far more than anything that could be done to his exterior. Mike told me that after she explained what she meant by “tattoos of the heart”, they went out for coffee and spent that time memorizing Psalm 51:1-2 which became Mike’s “life verses” (no, he didn’t have them tattooed on his arm).
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
Mike came to the Lord and had his inner tattoos removed by the blood of his Savior. Their removal was far more powerful and effective than removing the ink on his skin. Mike didn’t go to Bible college and become a preacher (If you ever meet Mike the very thought of that will make you smile). Mike is a car mechanic in South St. Paul, and he and Gwen have a wonderful, Christian marriage founded on their love for the Lord.
We all have our marks, our scars of the heart. Often, we hide them away and try to keep them in a place where they can be ignored. But as people of the Lord, we know that they need to be removed. We must allow God to wash them away with the Blood of the Lamb.
Give him a chance and Mike will tell you about the joy of forgiveness and the wonder of God’s love. His tattoos are gone, especially those tattoos of the heart.
Vern