The Devil Is Not Creative

..he is in your face

Micah Tindell | Unsplash

About fourteen years ago, I photographed a few political junkets for the largest union in the nation. My work still lines the hallways. I began on the streets of Los Angeles, then hopped a bus to Sacramento to walk the protest streets, leading us to the capitol, then peered into each and every office, multiple cameras strapped on, as trained and paid union members pleaded their case. Or was it their case? They were the lowest paid school employees. The bread and butter of “the system.” The school bus drivers, cafeteria, and daycare workers parked their small humble cars on the streets of L.A. and walked to the readied buses. Some told me they had no one to watch their kids at home, so they would walk home, as their parents traveled up to Sacramento. They were, in fact, the very people who “held up the framework of the schools.” By the end of my trip, traveling home in the dark, listening to all the chatter, I realized that the devil is not creative. The will of the devil to cut off their legs, throw them out in front of the lion’s den, begging for their jobs, was exhaustingly apparent. All in a deal to uphold those who had the most. Modern day slaves caught in a powerful trap. I came home utterly spent in thought, physically exhausted. I felt every ounce of it. Then I saw it on the screen.

The devil is in your face. He speaks loud and clear. He yells, demands, confuses, shames and mocks. Just watch the senate hearings. The devil screams “enough” when he’s done speaking. Your time is up!

When you cover anything political, if you are observing, listening, you are seeing the control over the people. You witness the “use of the least of us” for profit and gain. You see the wealthiest among those at the top “dressed entirely differently.” If you are watching, feeling, and letting it flow, as it should, through your pores, you will see the devil takes no interest in what you are saying. He will teach you through a loud megaphone what you should say.

Whether you listen or not is up to you.

We are a society, a people who cannot seem to discern His intentions versus the devil’s.
We are a fearful society versus a fearless independent thinking society.  What is good for them might not be good for us.
We are a society who believes throwing away mass amounts of babies is less bothersome than tossing mass amounts of garbage.  Yet we fight the good talk about garbage, including myself, because I am too weak to argue with the devil.
Jesus intervene.
We are a society that loves more versus less.
We are a society that casts away the old.
We are a society that desires healthy food, but not the farmer.
We argue over the idea of being healthy because many of us don't know what that is anymore.
We are a drugged society.  Drugs are the slow death of productivity.  Not "everyone" needs them.
We are a society that believes a child needs 70 needles stuck in their skin from birth to 18, but a tree requires nothing.
We are overboard and underboard.
We are a society that believes in science until it doesn't fit a narrative.
We are a society that believes the devil controls the weather vs. God
We are a society that wants laws when we are affected and no laws when we are not.
We are a society that sees and does not see.  We look away.  Get in line.  Be a good little _______________ (fill in the blank)

I could go on...

the devil is a circus trainer
narrative framer
people tamer, separator 

get on board with his antics
learn the devil's tactics
facts of dogmatics

take away his power
he will devour
as you scour

leaving you broke
provoked
with one stroke

master of chaos and illusion
paints you in confusion
poisoned resolution

unforgiving
redemption stripping
Holy dismissing

the devil created nothing
no peace-loving
blooming or becoming

disrupter of equality
twisted theology
professor of zoology

he is abrasive
a rainbow of invasive
the devil is not creative

he is in your face...


the devil - deborah t. hewitt

Ephesians 1:3 - verse of the day