Why do we build and create personal images?

This is Day 3 of the Image Reflections series. You can catch up on all the posts here. Just to reiterate, there is probably no way I can answer the questions I am asking exhaustively. Besides, I am asking questions that most of the time I don’t know the answers to, so just keep that in mind. I am writing you from Disney World, and I am exhausted. There is a part of me wondering if these questions even matter because I am tired, and the most important things to me currently are sleeping and keeping us all hydrated (which I have not done well) and surviving the daily fun. Talking about a place that could give me plenty of inspiration for image – Disney World is it. In the back of my mind as I walk into a park and see the Disney brand and all the sights, I am obsessing over “image.” There are so many images to see here. I am sure you will see a Happy Harper Home Journal on it soon.

Why do we build and create personal images?

Two things come to mind.

1. We want to know who we are.

2. We, the created, want to imitate the Creator.

We want to know who we are.

There is a very popular Christian book that recently celebrated its 10th anniversary called, “The Purpose Driven Life”, by Rick Warren. I cannot tell you how many books on purpose and on the will of God I have consumed in my lifetime – many. I think we all are born with an innate questions – Who am I? What am I here for? What have I been created to do? The Purpose Driven Life did not answer my questions. I was lucky to be discipled in college so much of what the Purpose Driven Life talks about, I’d already learned. Yes, I was created for God’s pleasure, to be in God’s family, to become Christlike, to serve God, and to be on Mission, but I wanted to know the answer specific to me. Much of my writing reflects this. If life is a gift and it is short, then why does it take some of us so long to feel like we know our own self? “Know thyself” is the old adage that we all seem to strive toward. When I googled “know thyself”, I found this quote interesting from Wikipedia:

In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates uses the maxim ‘know thyself’ as his explanation to Phaedrus for why he has no time for mythology or other far flung topics. Socrates says, “But I have no leisure for them at all; and the reason, my friend, is this: I am not yet able, as the Delphic inscription has it, to know myself; so it seems to me ridiculous, when I do not yet know that, to investigate irrelevant things.

Of course, we are not talking Greek philosophy here, we are talking in the context of all life, but mainly I will be addressing it specific to Christianity, or all of life from a Christian world view.

Though the Purpose Driven Life did not in any way help me know who I am or what on earth I am here for – the book proves that I am not alone in my quest for purpose and meaning. It was not a best-selling book for no reason. It was a best-selling book because it suggested it could answer the single question of being.

I wondered today if perhaps God does not answer this question for each of us at birth on purpose to keep us dependent on Him. He is the one to be known. He is the one unchanging, and our lives are journeys to “I am” – the constant, but I think that is a question for another day on my outline.

We, the created, want to imitate the Creator.

Being at Disney World, I cannot help but think of Walt Disney. The idea of this man fascinates me. On the one hand, I am impressed, and on the other, a little mortified. There is a part of me that does not want to appreciate his art because he has created an empire out of it. However, I have to think of other artists I do appreciate – like C. S. Lewis and Tolkien. Where would we be without great artists – they inspire us. A great book uses imagery and imagination and every writer needs these as his tools to paint a picture for the reader that causes them to see the questions and move toward a proper answer.

Perhaps God does not answer this question of being when we are born because we are designed in His image. He allows us to be creative, and perhaps there are a million and one things we could do to bring Him fame and glory that also give us joy (Read Emily Freeman’s “A Million Little Ways” – it is much more inspiring to help you find a specific purpose). As when we use any great author or artist for inspiration, we, the created, create images because we want to imitate either one another or the Creator Himself. Perhaps we don’t know the answer to who we are because God is allowing us to reflect His image and be creative.