Discovering Love: Ego Eimi -- I Am

In the middle of the storm, I am holding on to you.

I've sung this song in church numerous times, and heard it on the radio, and have known it as a declaration of me holding onto God for help, for salvation, for love.

In the Old Testament, God gives his name to Moses as I AM, or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE. In Hebrew letters, it's spelled YHWH. In Exodus 3:14, God said to Moses, "I AM who I AM"; and he said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" We pronounce it Yahweh or Jehovah. Some people believe that the name of God is too sacred to pronounce, so they refer to him as Adonai or Lord.

Another word used in the Old Testament was El. It's a generic title like "God" and it shows up in El Shaddai ("all sufficient"), or Israel ("overcomer"), Emmanuel ("God with us"), or El Elyon ("God Almighty").

In the New Testament, in the book of John, Jesus makes several strong identity statements that begin with "ego eimi," which was sometimes used as the Greek equivalent of YHWH (but not always, because it was a common identifier that anyone could use in a secular way, like "I am Christy Robinson").

In short parables, Jesus said "ego eimi/I am" the true vine, the bread of life, the good shepherd, the way, the light of the world. He also identified himself with the Father when he comforted the terrified disciples as he walked on the water, and when the temple soldiers came to arrest him before his crucifixion (they fell down in terror at his declaration). At certain times, then, eigo eimi was meant, and understood, to be equivalent to I AM the eternal God.

When I was a young adult, my mother confided that she had agonized over whether I'd keep my faith in God and be saved. Then, she said, she had a dream that I had been tossed in the sea, but I'd clung to a rock and been saved. She believed that dream was sent by God to reassure her that I would be saved.

In the many times I've sung this song by David Crowder, "I am," I read the words on the screen in the conventional way, that I'm holding onto God. But at the end of the phrase this time, there was a new screen that said merely "I am." That's when I saw the double meaning to the song.

God, the I AM, is holding on to me. There's nothing I can do to save myself. I'm not strong enough to hold on to him. But like a mama lion, he's got me by the scruff of the neck! He's hauled me out of the waves and set me on my feet. I haven't got him. He's got me.

In the middle of the storm, I AM holding on to you.
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Christy K Robinson is author of these sites:

· Discovering Love (inspiration)

· Rooting for Ancestors (history and genealogy)

· William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

and of these books:

· We Shall Be Changed (2010)

· Mary Dyer Illuminated (2013)

· Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This (2014)

· The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport (2014)

· Effigy Hunter (2015)

· Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)