I Am Who I Am

Just had a lightbulb come on over my head.  I confess that I rely too much on my own understanding to make sense of things, sometimes.

I've been teaching my adult Sunday School class for a few weeks now.  This time, we are studying a book by Dr./Rev. Adam Hamilton called John, the Gospel of Light and Life.  In it, there was a chapter about the "I am" statements of Jesus, which the author suggests relate back to God's message to Moses when he asked by what authority he should approach the Israelites with the Ten Commandments.  God told him to tell them, "I am who I am."

Yeah...okay...well, I am who I am, too....so what?  If someone were to ask you for your personal credentials, you would say, "I am a mother/father; I am a teacher/whatever; I am a child of God"; you are whatever in the world you are.  But what does it MEAN??

As a kid, I questioned everything.  If my mother told me I couldn't do something that I wanted to do, my immediate question was "WHY?"  I think I fairly why'd her to distraction.  After a few tries at the why thing on my part, Mom would finally respond, "Because I said so!"  That still didn't satisfy my need to know why, but I did know that when Mom got to that point, the argument was over.  My mother was establishing her authority without need to explain herself.  She was the parent.  I was the kid.  Nuff sed!!

And now I think it surely must be the same with biblical authority.  Whether or not you believe in a god, there is some authority in the universe that declares, "Because I said so."  You can agree or disagree.  You can challenge all you want.  The end result, however, is that you can't pray away hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes or floods.  You aren't in control.  God/Nature is.  And I think that is my new understanding of the Old Testament explanation of God.  The Great Parent, I Am Who I Am, who states, "Because I said so."  No other explanation needed or works.

Mom would be so proud.