It Is What It Is

"And God said to Moses, 'I AM WHO I AM.' This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.”'' Exodus 3:14

The expression I say quite frequently—people who know me well know this—is “It is what it is.” When it's said, I suppose I'm trying to convey the at-present reality (sometimes, permanency) of the situation at hand. Essentially, I’m saying, This is it. Nothing more. Nothing less. A fact. Can't do anything about it. So accept it. Go with it. Work with it.

During the years I taught high school English in Ecuador, I must have said it regularly because a co-worker bought me a decorative plaque that read “It is what it is,” which she had found during one of her visits to the States.

To me—though, most certainly, not to diminish the weight, grandeur, and glory of God’s identification of His essence with my modern-day comparison—“It is what it is” is similar to God’s self-identification in Exodus 3 and how He wanted to be known to His dearly loved, treasured people: I AM WHO I AM.

I AM WHO I AM.

A fact. Can't be changed.

Permanently and unequivocally inscribed in the depth of creation's core and encompassing atmosphere.

An eternal reality that has no beginning. Has no end.

If you or anyone else, in the shaking, quaking, breaking moments of life, thinks, feels, or acts differently, still, I AM WHO I AM.

I’m Yahweh. Elohim. Adonai. The All-Wise, All-Knowing, All-Powerful, All-Sufficient, All-Sustaining Creator of Heaven and Earth. The Reigner and Ruler of all. Ever-present. Ever-faithful. And so infinitely more. The merciful Redeemer, the loving Father who gave up His only Son to Calvary's cross for humanity's sin. Humanity’s salvation. The One who speaks and accomplishes. Whose words are your unfaltering, authoritative truth, usurping everything—every what is—in creation. The One True God who's in unassailable, sovereign control of all realities. Including yours.

Know it. Believe it. Embrace it. Live it.

In every day of this earthly sojourn, in every circumstance you face, rest securely on the indestructible, incorruptible rock of my I AM reliability.

Because WHO I SAY I AM—not your present-day problems or perplexing pain—is your truest, surest reality.

IT JUST IS WHAT IT IS.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

"What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'

"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 8:28-39