I Am What I Am

Our brains are most amazing memory organs.  From the moment we are born, daily it stores billions of bits of data.  The challenge of those first years is for our brains to sort the enormous intake.  Little by little as the years go by it gets very good at categorizing stimuli.  Soon it begins to form the story of a life.  That’s why there can never be another like you because even a twin with the same DNA will experience different stimuli thus forming a unique person all its own.  Decades later when we try to remember our childhood experiences we will unconsciously select the memories that harmonize with the self we have become. That is why it is most interesting to listen carefully to the stories people tell of their youth and childhood.  It tells us much about who they now think they are.  Events that cannot be synchronized are not discarded they are just not remembered even though they are there.

Other than God’s miracle of mitosis over which we had no control we are self made.  There is no one to blame other than the person we see in the mirror.  No amount of resurrecting repressed memories can excuse who we are and what we do.  When we come to God for grace, forgiveness and salvation there is no room for excuses.  There is no blaming moms, dads or uncles.  The joy is we don’t have to blame anyone.  God isn’t looking for shared responsibility.   He is looking for a contrite heart and an openness to begin anew.  He is looking for a heart that cries out Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

And the answer is (no drum roll needed) “Jesus Christ, our Lord.”  Verse 25.

Written by Roger Bothwell on February 2, 2012

Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574

Rogerbothwell.org