Hello everyone! I am trying to blog as often as I can. My work in public health will be changing soon with an emphasis more on what I actually do in my dept so I believe this will afford me extra time to write on down time instead of having to work on call time. I am still considering when to publish a book I co-authored with another Oklahoma poet and will have an announcement about that soon. This has certainly been an interesting 7 months! I feel like this year has really flown by and at the same time been very strange on so many levels. This too shall pass, nothing lasts forever. Needless to say, I press on and will continue to write and share my heart through blogs and books with you. Let us begin.
What do I mean when I say I’m not in the business of making little me’s? I mean I’m not in the business of controlling people or making them after my image. I say this because in society, especially right now, I see a lot of this happening on social media, in popular culture, and in the political realm. I see many people trying to control other people through various means and make them after their image. And worst of all, they practice this cancelling phenomenon if they can’t get someone or a group to do want they want them to do. This not only disturbs me; it makes me angry. Why? Control is evil and it forms the basis of abuse and witchcraft which I do not tolerate. I nor anyone else has ever made another person from scratch as God has, so where do we get this idea that we have the right to make anyone in our image? Hear me. I’m not talking about having children. Children are naturally going to look like their parents. I am speaking about control, manipulation, and trying to force our views on others to make them think like us or be like us, and when this doesn’t work, we treat them like they don’t exist or are evil if they have a different opinion. This kind of “image making” I won’t participate in nor allow it in my life and in my sphere. I see much of this in our political sphere on both sides of the isle and I won’t have it. If you didn’t make me you don’t get to tell me how to think and I won’t tell you how to think because I didn’t make you. Fair enough?
The fastest way to make me not see it your way is to try to control me, manipulate me, or disregard me. You not only lose influence, you don’t win a friend, and you certainly don’t win trust. Tell me how this will help you win an argument or sway someone? The long and short of it is – it doesn’t help at all. This kind of “image making” only wins you a reputation as a control freak. Control has a root in fear and I won’t walk in fear ever again nor will I be made to fear! The only image I will point you to is the image you bear, and that is the image of God. Yes, we humans are all made in the image of God; not the image of Donald Trump nor the image of Joe Biden, nor the image of the Republican party, nor the image of the Democratic party, nor the image of this pastor or that pastor. A word of warning; any pastor who is manipulating and controlling you and trying to make you into his or her image is dangerous and wants you to participate in idol worship (they being the idol). Run away! Run far away and take others with you! A second word of warning; any image wrapped up in a political party is bound to get tarnished or fail at some point. Why? Politics ebbs and flows, waxing and wanes, wins and loses, it is not eternal. Your image in God is eternal because it is spiritual. Politics will pass away, your image bearing likeness to God will never pass away because you are flesh and spirit. Grasp this! Politics does not have to control you, your thoughts or your emotions!
Readers, I will never point you to me – look at me, look at what I have accomplished, look at what I can do – I will point you to the King whose image you bear! My flesh image is mortal, fallen, and will pass away some day; but His image and our spirits are eternal and they will never pass away. I know some of this may sound kooky and “up in the clouds” but it is the truth! I have no desire to control anyone, that is not love! I have no desire to take choice away in the name of looking like me, that is not love! I have no desire to make everyone look and feel like me, that would simply be boring and most importantly, it is not love! Run away from people who seek to control you! Run away from those who seek to turn you into themselves – they are the blind leading the blind and do not know what they do because they are afraid. Take no part in their fear!
I point you to the King! I point you to the only One who can heal your heart and soul! I point you to the One whose image you bear! Open your eyes and see and your ears and hear! He longs to know you and me! He loves you and me! He made us because he loved us, not to control us. Look to Him and see! He knows you. He sees you. You are not alone in this world! In this strange time, look to Him and see image bearer who and Whose you truly are! Let this be your revelation!
Love,
Elizabeth