Ah! I have your attention this far, well at least to the second line.

Fair warning: I am a Christian and I love talking about my God. If that offends you, well you should probably get some thicker skin and read on.

“When is this guy going to actually address the question he actually stated in the beginning?”

Okay fine. If you have a Bible open up to Exodus 3, if you don’t have a Bible, I am absolutely positive that google has a plethora of biblical reading materials.

Start in verse seven. Both verses 7 and 9 are talking about the misery and suffering that the people are going through in Egypt. “I have seen the misery… I have heard them crying… the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.” (Exodus 3:7 & 9)

At this point, if I was Moses I would be thinking to myself, “well it sure does suck to be them. Good thing I ran away when I did (forget that I did happen to murder my adopted fathers slave driver)” Ah! But read on.

“So now, go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10)

*insert Steve Carell GIF “NO! NO! God, please no! (Funny how that plays out as well with the whole God thing)

Moses goes on to complain about the impossible thing God just asked him to do. He continues to complain more. Yeah we get it Moses, you giant chicken. Just do it.

“BUT GOD! I don’t know what to say. Am I supposed to do this alone? Obviously you are going to protect me right? Here’s a great scenario. I go to Pharaoh tell him to let your people go and he doesn’t send a spear through my skull. He proceeds to ask who sent me to deliver this message. What should I identify you as? Savior, Lord, Yahweh, Alpha, Omega, Beginning…”

And then the Lord interrupts him “Tell them, I AM who I AM” (Exodus 3:11-14, New Isaac Interpretation [deal with it])

Now this is where I give God humanistic qualities and I imagine God standing like 5 feet in front of Moses over the burning bush with a microphone and he just drops the mic, walks back slowly with a slight grin on his face. (This is also where I imagine Moses thinking, “bruh, I can still see you”) I also realize this is going to hurt some legalistic Christian’s feelings because this was not clearly depicted in Exodus therefore it didn’t happen and I am committing an act of heresy because I am interpreting the bible in a way that isn’t straight from the passage.

Oh well. Keep reading.

Let’s think about that for a hot second. God just took the entire English language and broke probably 20 rules. The repeat of “I AM” doesn’t make sense and he just used his describing word the same way he began to introduce himself. It is like pointing to a rock and saying “IT IS what IT IS.” Moses is probably flipping out at this point. “bruh, you just told me to go to Pharaoh, which may I remind you is the most powerful man in all of Egypt, tell him to let my people go, (which by the way God, fun fact, they are his slave so he probably will see to them as… his… people). But when he asks who sent me with such a daring request you want me to say “I AM” sent me?!?

When I first read this passage there are two very clear analogies that I could write an entire article in itself about. There is the clear “how often does God ask you to do something big and you are scared” analogy and the other “how often do you doubt God” analogy. Lucky for you, this is not either of those. (Sucker. Thought you were going to get off easy)

For me, the fact that God replied to Moses with “I AM” was the most confusing thing growing up. “Maybe one day I will reread this passage and the third word will just appear.” I AM… LORD. I AM GOD. Maybe if that happened then maybe, just maybe, I could have peace with myself finally knowing the final scene of this dramatic encounter with God. But that is just it! God doesn’t need a third word. God is everywhere. God is my Savior. God is all-powerful. God is all-knowing. God is everything.

Ha! So know I made it even more confusing for you. Probably thinking to yourself, “great, I thought I had a grasp on this concept and now my mind is completely shut down.”

Sorry? I guess?

So that is God. God can be just “I AM.” Why? Because He is God. I AM who I AM. (Insert mic drop round two.)

But who are you?

Oh crap, who am I? How do I identify myself? Oh, too easy, I am Isaac. We could even get fancy and go with some things that help identify me specifically. I am tall (boom). I am skinny (bam). I am loud (badda-bing). Or we can get personal and use some of those third words that you don’t like anyone to know. I am afraid. I am scared. I am depressed. I am hurt. I am alone. I am untrusting and untrustworthy. I am unqualified. I am terrified. I am lost. I am a failure. I am insecure. I am weak. I am fake. I Maybe they aren’t just words. Maybe they are phrases. Phrases like I am afraid to step up. I am battling with depression and self-harm. I am mad at God for taking my family member away. I am confused as to why my aunt has cancer. I am hurt by my parents’ divorce. I am broken to pieces over the miscarriage of my child. I am lost as to which way is right and which way is wrong.

Real Talk Alert

You are wrong.

“Woah, did he just tell me I’m wrong”

Yes, I did.

This past summer I was able to work as a counselor for Junior High and High school boys at a summer camp. Week after week this same issue of that third word or phrase would come up. Counselor Isaac, I am terrified to go back home where my mom is going to verbally abuse me. Counselor Isaac, I am stuck in this terrible habit of smoking and I don’t know how to get out. Isaac, I am not loved at home and I am confused as to why you show me love. I am never going to understand why my mother dropped me off at an orphanage the day after I was born like I was nothing to her. I am mad that my sister is gone now and I don’t know what to do or how to process.

I get it. All of these emotions are normal and I understand it. Pain hurts and it seems as if it may never end. Pain is confusing and gut-wrenching. Pain is a part of life. But here is where I question where your God is? If you believe in the same God that I believe in, all these things will seem miniscule. If you believe in God, does that mean that all pain in life is now easy? NO! Pain in life will still be hard, but you have something, you have someone different than those who don’t believe. You have someone that wants to help you through this hard time.

Are you terrified of home? Verbally abused? Physically abused? Feel like you have done nothing for your family name other than just be a continual failure? That earthly home is temporary.

(John 14:13) “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?”

And guess what that means. In that home that my Father is preparing for you have nothing to be afraid of. In that home, there will be no more pain there will be no more sorrow. In that home, you are not a failure. In that home, your third word is SON or DAUGHTER.

Why do I show you love? Hopefully if you have ever encountered me I am known for the ways that I care. I love very easily and I am extremely grateful that God has given me that sort of attitude. But when I was asked why I loved so easily this summer I couldn’t give an answer. Why did I put on a smile when I had to wake up 5 times throughout the night to check my kid with diabetes? Why did I laugh and smile when I was cleaning up vomit at 330 A.M. from the kid who ate too many pop tarts. Why?

(1 John 4:19) “We love because He first loved us.”

So ask me again. Why do I love so easily? It is because I have had the best model of love that anyone could ever show. In a way that appeals to my character, why would you not love? If someone looked at you in all of your stupidity, in all of your brokenness, in all of your mistakes, in all of your debt, and they said “I am going to take all of that, and I am going to pay for all of it. I am going to show that I love you by sending my son to die for all of your bad.” Why would you not want to follow that guy? Why would you not show love if you have already been loved at the highest capacity possible. My third word would be loving. I am loving because I was loved first.

(John 15:13) “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (also a great verse for a tattoo, just saying)

Last one. And this one is the hardest for me to understand as well. I am mad/confused/ hurt/upset at this pain in my life. My sister died from a terrible car crash. I was dropped off at an orphanage like an amazon package when I was just a few weeks old. My first child was miscarried in the womb. My mom died from cancer. My parents are getting divorced which would make this the fourth divorce in my life. I am going through the roughest patch of my life. I can count on no one right now. My parents disowned me and want nothing to do with me or my failures. I don’t fit in anywhere. The list goes on and on.

Pain hurts like I said before, and here is where I am going to really get under the skin of some people. Pain hurts, but pain is good. This is not a “pain is weakness leaving the body” ending (sorry). Pain is an opportunity for you to run directly into the arms of the one true comforter. The world tells you to run to A, B, and C for comfort. I am saying forget that! My God says here I AM. The world tells you that pain is punishment. My God says pain is an outlet for you to be weak. The world says you can replace that pain with worldly comfort. My God says he will replace that pain with HIS SON.

(2 Corinthians 13:4)

“For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives in God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you”

(2 Corinthians 12:10)

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, THEN I AM STRONG”