idol 1 (Presence series)

 Exodus 33:15 NKJV

Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” 

I have roamed.  I have run.  I have blithely moved from place to place trying to find my place in this world, laboring to fulfill God’s idea of me.  I have dragged my wife and kids literally across the country and back many times.  I was thinking if I could just find that perfect situation where I’d fit and be at least allowed, if not supported to exercise my giftings and ideas… but I would not be content.  In truth, every situation was a perfect one.  I just couldn’t see it for my golden calf. 

Grateful  No, I did not ask to be born or come into existence.  No one did. The eternal material of my soul, the distinct machinations of my mind, the one-of-a-kind idiosyncrasies of my body, and that this idea of me comes from (what we think of as) nothing into this (what we think of as) empirical time/space continuum…  it was/is/will be God’s idea.  I know if I could just stick 100% to this juggernaut of knowledge in all my musings, decisions, actions, reactions, words, I would be in a perpetual state of serenity.  All would be well with my soul, continually. 

     “I AM THAT I AM” is the name God replied to Moses’ question on that plain with the burning bush.  “I am” is the very first name we call ourselves when first we become self-aware. Some people are born into this world with an inherent understanding of who they really are and WHO they come from. Some of us are just not bright enough to want to explore that inkling that the Apostle Paul calls “the measure of faith.”  And some reject it because they were offended by another who is following that path.  Some reject it outright, choosing to go along with the flow of the corrupted times they live in, so that they will not “stick out.” 

Whether we admit it or not, we have been chosen to be given a life, and that decision was not influenced a hair by us at all.  As “I am” is our declaration of existence, “we were not” is the accurate description of our influence on our existence.  God’s idea, distinct, original, piece of God’s immaculate creative genius, He put into a mortal, fallen body, that was introduced to this corrupted world by water, flesh, and blood.  As He is three in one, so we are 3 parts in one being-body, mind, spirit.  He has chosen you to have this amazing, incredible, astounding, phenomenal, odds-busting opportunity to live, to be as He is in a lesser way, “I am.”  With this knowledge we should never have cause to bemoan our life or regret that we live.  The only truly universally harmonious response, for this thing we didn’t ask for, is utter gratefulness to the Great I AM.