My Five Favorite Good Friday Resources

Yesterday I got a tattoo (yay) isn’t it pretty?:

Yes,  that is an Instagram picture. If you follow me on Facebook, you’d know that I joined this week and I’m all types of giddy to use my new app.  I know, I  know, I’m egregiously behind the times.  Can I recoup whatever I lost in cool points for being a late adopter with having a super pretty, super spiritual tattoo?  No?  Well, it was worth a try…

Here are my five favorite resources to focus on the cross and prepare my heart for Easter Sunday.

1: Best form of Art 

Even if I don’t get cool points for my tattoo, I love it. I love how the artist kept the dove feminine, but prominent on my arm.  I even love how the filigree looks a bit like music symbols!  It’s as if God inspired the tattoo artist, because it’s perfectly me. I love the symbolisms of the dove— peace, wholeness, and solidarity with the poor.  I’ve got that Dove Love, y’all.

I believe the greatest moment of peacemaking, or shalom, was Jesus’ death on the cross, so although my tattoo is of a dove, it still reminds me to live a Cruciform life. To me the cross and peace are synonymous. Marking my skin with this symbol reminds me  that Christ is my Prince of Peace—the first and best peacemaker.

Pastor Chris Seays of Ecclesia church in Houston agrees with me that getting a tattoo is a wonderful way to share your story and allegiance to Christ.  Check out his church’s cool observance of Lent called, “Cruciformity: Stations on Skin.  I love the tattoos and the pastor’s heart to embrace culture and make Christ relevant.  I also love that they’re from Houston, TX—not too far from my hometown, Texas City, TX.  

2: Best online prayer from Shane Claiborne’s Book of Common Prayer:
http://commonprayer.net/

Source

 No commentary needed, it’s Shane Claiborne.  You know there’s awesomeness to be had on that site.  

3: Best Good Friday Encouragement On-The-Go.

Source

“Pray-as-you-go” is a fantastic podcast from the Jesuits that I listen to occasionally. Here is  the Good Friday recording.

4: Best theology of the Good Friday service

To be honest, I’m secretly bothered by the “nailing my sins to the cross” activity of Good Friday services. It seems somewhat sensationalist and an attempt to guilt-trip me into feeling remorse for my sins.  I appreciate this article on the “Goal of Good Friday”:
“Many of the Good Friday services and depictions I know have focused on our guilt, my guilt and yours specifically, for Jesus’ grisly crucifixion and death. If the servant suffered, then, by God, we had better suffer, too, because God knows we deserve some suffering and a boatload of guilt, complicit as we are in the death of the son. Am I alone in thinking that there is something theologically amiss in all this?”

5: 10 Best Songs on the Cross
I made this playlist to listen to while I got my dove tattoo.  The first five helped me meditate on Jesus’ sacrifice and his great love for us.  The last five are my favorite responses to the cross.  I hope it blesses you.  They range from classical to r&b, and there’s even a Haitian Creole version of “Lead Me To The Cross”.  I know the image shows eight, but there’s ten— I promise—I wouldn’t skimp on my dear readers ;).

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