The I AM we all hear

I spent last night furiously writing a list of topics I want to be the first few posts here and have to control my enthusiasm to space them out over time instead of throwing them all out there at once. But the first one I want to put out is a thought that I have had for a few weeks now, one that has really been speaking to me and I hope touches you in some way or another. This is not a professional speaking or will even flow smoothly, it will probably be more "stream of consciousness" but it is something that I need to get out.

We all hear a voice inside of us saying "I AM", to some of us it may be loud, to others is quiet and soft, but we ALL hear it nonetheless. It is how we interpret it that makes all the difference. Many today hear this voice and take it to be coming from themselves telling them who they are and what their place in the world is. They interpret this to be their ego, their desire, their driving force so to speak. They say that this is what drives them to be all they can be, to persevere through life and overcome. This takes the form of "I Am all that matters", or "I Am #1", or "I Am better than everyone else". They use this to justify their lying, their cheating, their stepping on anyone and everyone who gets in their way to success. They take this "I AM" they hear make it all about them.

But that isn't what the voice is or the message it is bringing. "I AM" is not ourselves telling us about who we are or what we deserve or where we belong, what is due us. Instead the "I AM" is GOD speaking to us, trying to get our attention. He is trying to tell us about himself, who he is, what he is like. GOD wants a relationship with you, he wants you to know him as he wants to know you, he wants to be welcome and he wants to welcome you. Those who think the "I AM" is all about themselves are not that far off. "I AM is all that matters", "I AM is #1", and "I AM is better than everyone else", however where they go wrong is applying to themselves instead of GOD. We must hear the voice for what it truly is, otherwise we misapply it and create nothing but sorrow and pain and misery.

There is a GOD shaped hole in everyone of us whether we want to admit it or not. It cries out to us for filling, to be whole. GOD speaks to us from that hole telling us "I AM"-who he is; he wants to come in and fill in the whole and complete us. We only really have two choices, we can either listen to the voice as it truly is and hear GOD, or we can make the voice about us and fill the whole with our own desires and self. One leads to joy and happiness; while the other only leads to misery, sorrow, and pain.

As Joshua said at the end of the campaign for Canaan, "...Choose for yourself this whom you will serve..... but as for me and my household we will serve the Lord"-Joshua 24:15.