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Who am I? That question echoes through every human heart. We spend much of our lives trying to answer it through accomplishments, relationships, possessions, politics, religion, or success, all while quietly wondering if anyone truly knows us beneath the masks we wear. During a sleepless night recently, God placed a profound realization on my heart about two simple words, I am, and how they echo throughout Scripture and deep within every human soul. I invite you to read more.

When Moses stood before the burning bush and asked God His name, God answered with words so sacred that the Jewish people scarcely dared to speak them aloud.

I AM WHO AM. (Exodus 3:14)

Centuries later, Jesus repeatedly used those same words when speaking about Himself. He said, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, and even more boldly, Before Abraham came to be, I AM. Those listening immediately understood what He was saying. Jesus was identifying Himself with the very name God had spoken to Moses.

One of the most overlooked uses of this same phrase appears in the story of the blind man healed by Jesus in John chapter nine. The disciples saw the man only through the lens of suffering and sin. They asked Jesus, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? But Jesus answered, “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him.”

After Jesus healed him, confusion broke out among the crowd. Some insisted this was the same blind beggar they had seen for years, while others argued it could not possibly be him. Finally, the healed man answered for himself. In the original Greek text, he responded with the same phrase Jesus often used:

Ego eimi.

I am.

What a powerful moment. A man once identified only by his blindness now stood before the world transformed by an encounter with Christ. He was no longer merely “the blind man.” He had discovered a new identity.

Perhaps that is the deepest longing hidden within every human heart. We all want to know who we truly are beneath the labels, accomplishments, failures, wounds, temptations, fears, and masks that so often define us. We long to stand honestly before God without pretending.

The world constantly tries to answer the question for us. Satan himself whispers that we are nothing more than our failures and worst moments. I once heard someone say, “Satan knows our name but calls us by our sin. God knows our sin but calls us by our name.” What a profound difference.

God does not define us by the worst thing we have ever done. He calls us beloved sons and daughters created in His image. The Psalmist reminds us, I praise you because I am wonderfully made. That does not mean we are perfect. Like Saint Paul, we often feel divided within ourselves, struggling between who we are and who we long to become. Paul himself cried out, I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.

Christianity has never been merely about behavior modification. From the very beginning, Christians understood that God became man so that humanity might share in His divine life. The early Church called this divinization or theosis. Theosis (divinization) is God’s life working in us, so that we’re healed and transformed from the inside. It does not mean we become God Himself, but that we gradually become more fully alive in Him, allowing Christ to live within us and transform us into the people we were created to be. Through this lifelong journey, we gradually begin to see the many parts that make us who we are, the beautiful, the broken, the wounded, and the redeemed, as pieces of the self that ultimately belongs to God.

I have written a poem that attempts to capture the shared human quest to be truly known.

Click here to read or download the POEM.

That may sound mysterious, but perhaps the longing itself has always existed deep within the human heart. In the old Neil Diamond song, I Am… I Said, he asks, “Did you ever read about a frog who dreamed of being a king, and then became one?” Strange as it may sound, that lyric touches something profoundly human. Beneath all our confusion, loneliness, masks, and wandering is a deep longing to become more than we currently are. We long to become whole. We long to become fully alive. We long to become the person God created us to be.

In many ways, the spiritual life resembles the Japanese art of kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold, and the cracks themselves become part of the beauty. God does not erase every broken piece of our lives, nor does He pretend the cracks never existed. Instead, He lovingly holds together all the scattered pieces of our lives, the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the broken, holding us together by grace and mercy as He slowly transforms us into the people we were created to be.

The song continues with another haunting line:

I am, I said
To no one there
And no one heard at all
Not even the chair.

Perhaps you are someone carrying that same loneliness. Perhaps you are someone walking through life wondering if anyone truly knows the real you beneath the masks you wear. The Gospel gives us a beautiful assurance. We are not merely our wounds. We are not merely our temptations. We are not merely our failures or fears. We are beloved children of God, fearfully and wonderfully made in His image.

Perhaps the greatest spiritual journey of our lives is learning to stand before God without masks, without pretending, and with humility and peace finally say:

I am!

Heavenly Father, help me to stop defining myself by the labels, wounds, failures, and fears of this world. Remind me that my deepest identity is found in being Your beloved child, fearfully and wonderfully made in Your image. Teach me to live honestly before You without masks or pretending and help me become more fully the person You created me to be through the life of Your Son living within me. Amen.

Have you checked out my new book, Living Out the Lord’s Supper? To find out what readers everywhere are talking about, click here.

AMDG

AMDG is a Latin abbreviation for “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam,” which means “For the Greater Glory of God.”

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Brian Pusateri

Brian is a Christian author and speaker. Brian, a lifelong Catholic, felt his life was forever changed when God spoke to his heart while attending an eight day silent Christian retreat in November of 2011. Soon after that retreat Brian founded 4th Day Letters and Broken Door Ministries. With the God inspired message of mercy and unconditional love that was placed on his heart during that retreat, Brian has been impacting others all over the country and around the world with his weekly letters, his talks, and his all day Christian retreats. In June of 2014, Brian’s life was again impacted in a very dramatic way when his eyesight suddenly became permanently impaired. The initial diagnosis was Multiple Scleroses (MS) but in December of 2019 the diagnosis was corrected to MOG antibody disease, a rare neurological disease. This health challenge has only served to draw Brian closer to God and bolster the importance of this timely yet ageless message.

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