To be or... ?

God is "I am that I am." He's "I am". So what are we, who are made in his image, to do? Just be who you are. Just be.

Instead, we spend all our time trying to be who we or others think we should be. We construct an image, a virtual statue, of that person and it becomes an idol. We try to be that idolized person rather than who we are, made in the image of the living God.

It gets even more absurd. God is always doing something new-- including in us. As we go forward in time, we change. We are not, and *should not be* the same person tomorrow we are today. We should have grown. But statues and idols don't change except to erode and crumble pathetically over time. Even if that statue happened to be a perfect representation of who we were to be at that point in time, each day we grow farther and farther from that point in time, that person. Yet we cling desperately to who we saw ourselves as then, lost in the past.

Since an idol is a lie to begin with, the past we're lost in isn't even a real past, but a monstrous, fairy tale fabrication. Eventually the idol consumes us. Instead of the awesome person God made us to be, all that's left is a hollow shell growing weaker by the day as time inexorably pulls us farther from our false god.

Yet there is hope. The true God is always right there, same as he ever was. Just being. Calling us to just be. Reach out and grab him. Just be along with him. Life. Freedom. Love. Peace. Joy. Chuys. Ahhhh....