I AM

by Pastor Stephen Brucker

Popeye said ‘I yam what I yam’

But what did he mean

I mean

Am I time plus matter plus chance

A primordial goo, a universal glue, in a heartless dance

Am I what I do or do not do?

A good boy who cleans his room

Walks in moral purity, disguising ethical hypocrisy, and fancying religious superiority

Am I the clothes I wear, the school I attend

My family heritage or the things I comprehend

All which could go up in a flame

Which begs the question, what would be left of my name

Am I lower-class or upper-class

My favorite sport or my empty flask

Am I a liar a cheat

A clown with big feet.

Am I the collision of decisions

The mixture of personal conditions

Or am I an American, a Democrat, a tree hugger or free thinker

A moralist, a capitalist, a materialist or an individualist

There are endless numbers of ‘I am’ succumbers

Whose identity adapts like freshman newcomers

But what if I am NOT what I think I am

Not as I can

And not where I stand?

What if personal discovery

Doesn’t come from searching me?

What if a Man on transfiguration

Transfers his rights, creating identity from on heights?

What if a Man on the tree

Proclaims that I am free

Setting His identity

On a wretched man like me?

Who am I?

I‘ll tell you who I am

I am who He says I am.

A sinner saved by grace

Ripped away from my idolatrous embrace

I am rinsed by blood

Saved from the flood

Royal by heavenly decree

Chosen by divine mystery

Pardoned as if I always obeyed

Cleared as if I’d always stayed

Dead, killed, delivered, set apart

Regenerate with a new heart

Given a completely new start

I’ve been transferred into a new family

Thanks to the Son who exemplified humility

Being set apart, commissioned with grave responsibility

Proclaiming the gospel to those in need of a new identity

Oh yes I’m still a creature

With all its feature

Vulnerable, dependent and depraved

Ignoring Him most days,

In which I terribly misbehave

But worried I am not

As God the Son on Calvary fought

To justify and adopt

With His own blood he has now bought

And this new vision I now have caught

Though the world may claim my identify

Suggesting their need to clarify me

God has set his affection eternally

Grafting me into the Son’s identity

Christ’s righteousness is transferred to me

When I believed His act on Calvary

I am no longer guilty of sin

Because the Father crushed His own kin

As time passes I understand more fully

That this story, has made me holy

If you’re confused let me simply proclaim

It’s not about you, me, or your self-proclaimed identity

It’s about a person, his work and his fame.

Let us rejoice, for Popeye was in grave error

Our burden is dead, in Christ there is no terror

Because Christ is perfectly our sin bearer

Holy Union, there’s nothing in life more rarer

So Let us swim, basking in God’s glory

Flailing around, as children in the ultimate love story

Breathing in and out his rejuvenating peace

Freedom at last, I am now what I will always be

United to He and blessed with heavenly identity