The Weight of "I AM"

You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live. And everyone who lives believing in me does not ultimately die at all. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26, The Message)

If I really were of a mind to make my brain hurt in a major way, I’d go beyond trying to read large portions of C.S. Lewis or Dallas Willard in single sittings and I’d contemplate the weight of the God of the Universe saying “I AM” to me.  I can somehow put things in an historical perspective when I read how He said that name to Moses.  I can begin to grasp when Jesus utters that phrase in all its wonder when they came for Him in the garden.  But when I turn those thoughts inward and try to connect the dots as to why that same God comes to me personally and says it in a thousand different ways, I feel like I want to run to the cabinet for at least four ibuprofen tablets.  Trying to say “it boggles the mind” just doesn’t quite explain it.

And yet, that is exactly what God does.  He comes to me … Mark Moore … in an intensely personal way and gently but clearly tells me over and over who He is.  He tells me to trust Him completely.  He tells me how much He loves me … so much that He faced down Death and won my very soul.  And He promises me that I am never alone.  That’s the very essence of Jesus message to Martha during the depth of her grief at losing her brother.

The Crooked Path can be an unsettling and sometimes frightening place.  In my travel, it is very comforting to note that, as my friend Camille Lewis said (her blog is on the main page), the sparrows in her planting area are watched over by God.  If the “I AM” takes His attention to that detail with one of the smallest creatures in the world, I’m pretty sure I can trust Him to get me through this life … and into the next one.