I believe. I do. I am.

I AM is the statement God made to Moses when Moses asked, “Who are you?” It is be a statement of existence and of subjectivity. Am is a variant of to be, which can mean “to exist.” I am signifies the subject, I, doing an action, am. Am is the verb that signifies the beginning or the presence of action itself, as one must first exist to be able to act, and also is used in the –ing tense to signify forever continuing action, like watching: as God states, I am watching. The subject is the one that does this action, and the object, not present in the statement I AM, is the one the action is done to.

As subject, God accomplishes actions. God loves. God protects. God smites. God lives. These actions are continual, never ending. God does not just love, He has always loved, is now loving, and will forever love. I worship God because of His subjectivity, because of what He does, because He cares more about saving me than about being glorified as a mere object. God does not need my attention to be important because God is love. This is obvious from the fact that Jesus, as God, accomplished the ultimate action of love towards me: God died.

To do is to exist, as existence, in itself, is an action. God needs no adoring fans because God, in and of Himself, lives. Furthermore, God created me in His own image, in the image of subjectivity. This means I must do actions, not to be adored or to gain the attention of others, but simply for the sake of doing these actions. As the Bible says, “do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” If I believe, for instance, that the front door knob needs to be fixed, I don’t just sit around complaining that the door is broken. I either fix it or call someone in to fix it. It does nothing to complain, except to put me in a bad mood. Living by complaint (inaction) usually only draws attention to the complainer, thus making that person the object (the one looked at) instead of the subject (the one who acts).

When I spend my time complaining, that complaint seems to be the most important thing in the world, and I cannot see beyond it, that maybe it is not such a big deal just to go and fix that door knob myself. For those people who cannot see beyond the emotions of the moment, Paul says, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” As far as I am concerned, this is a pathetic existence. While these are verbs, not all verbs promote action psychologically. This string of verbs is meant to put people at ease, not encourage them to action. God made me in his image as subject. Subjects do. To do is what it means to exist.

I believe I AM.