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.” I guess when said, I’m trying to convey the at-present reality (sometimes, permanency) of the situation. Essentially, I’m saying, This is it. Nothing more. Nothing less. A fact. Can't change it. So accept it. Go with it. Work with it.

During the six years that I taught high school English in Ecuador, I must have said it quite frequently 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 and glory of God’s identification of his core essence, by 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, most treasured people: I AM WHO I AM.

I AM WHO I AM.

A fact. Can't be changed.

Permanently and reliably inscribed into Earth's existence.

An eternal reality that has no beginning. And has no end. Even if you or anyone else—even in the hard moments of life—feels or thinks or believes differently, still, I AM WHO I AM.

I’m God—the All-Wise, All-Knowing, All-Powerful, All-Sustaining Creator of Heaven and Earth. The One who speaks and it's accomplished. The One who's in charge of everything, who reigns and rules over all. The One whose Word is the ABSOLUTE TRUTH that usurps all earthly realities. The One who's ever-present, ever-faithful, and so infinitely more.

Know it. Believe it. Embrace it.

In every day of your sojourn and in every circumstance you face, rest securely on the rock-solid reliability of who I say I am in the pages of my Holy Word.

Because WHO I SAY I AM—not your present-day problems or piercing pain—is your TRUEST REALITY.

IT 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