I Am

A poem by a British guest poet who writes under the name of Michael Uriel and uses his poetry to predominantly look at religious & spiritual issues from a Christian base. 

I Am

I sit on the ground lonely and alone,
Here on the floor in ‘home sweet home’.
You said if I searched that I’d find you,
But how can that be if I don’t know who,
I Am

You said if I called my burdens you’d bare,
So why do I struggle with all this fear?
‘Help me be fearless, O’ Lord’ I prayed,
But here I still sit, confused and afraid,
I Am

I called out to you,
I begged you too,
There must be a simpler way
But it is all you would say,
I Am

What does it mean the name you chose?
Perhaps if I knew it’d be more than prose.
But it’s all I have, understand it I must.
In you God placing my trust,
I Am

And then I realised what’d eluded me,
You are and you always will be,
Inexhaustible love cemented.
Now contented,
I Am
 
Through search and trust I understood,
He is what binds us all, leading to brotherhood,
She is strength and protection all and every day,
The world spirit is love and care and forever will say,
I Am

Michael Uriel: I wrote this poem while trying to get my head around one of the names for God/Yaweh in the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism and Christianity) being "I Am". What does this mean, what does it tell us about the Greater Being, how should we approach this name?


What is your response to this?


Some more information
I Am that I Am (Hebrew: אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה‎, pronounced Ehyeh asher ehyeh) is a common English translation of the response God used in the Hebrew Bible when Moses asked for his name (Exodus 3:14). It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah. Ehyeh asher ehyeh is generally interpreted to mean I am that I am, though it can also be translated as "I-shall-be that I-shall-be."



Catholic understanding: This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.



Hindu understanding: In the Hindu Advaita Vedanta, the South Indian sage Ramana Maharshi mentions that of all the definitions of God, "none is indeed so well put as the biblical statement “I am that I am”". He maintained that although Hindu scripture contains similar statements



For more information see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_that_I_Am








Pictures
The first image is cropped from the stunning roof of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. I found it on an interesting blog post, which talks of Jesus' passion to work with outcasts.


The second is from a post entitled 'One God in all religions?' written from a Hindu point of view, and contains the religious symbols of most of the major religions.