The person who pleases God most is the person whom God pleases most.

“Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:13-14)”

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1:17)”

A young prince is deciding whether to commit suicide or not. Hamlet looks at all the intense suffering in his life and tries to decide whether its better to exist or not to exist. Not only is the weather cold and miserable in Denmark, his Uncle has cruelly murdered his loving father and married his adulterous and fickle mother. To be or not to be is his question. (Although Hamlet worries that if he dies, he might still be!)

The answer is simple: God. God is better than our being or not being. Hamlet is asking the wrong question because our being is derived entirely from God. Every finite being is less being than being. In other words, we are infinitely more ‘I am not’ than ‘I am’.

Hamlet can say, ‘I am the Prince of Denmark’ but he must also say, ‘I am not the King of the Universe’. Shakespeare may have an IQ of 200 but he doesn’t have an IQ of 500. I am 100 years old, but I am not 1000 years old. We are infinitely more ‘not’ than ‘am’.

We are also changing constantly. I am not what I was 1 hour ago, or 1 minute ago, or even one second ago. I am not yet what I will be in an hour, or minute or second’s time. Mutability is a mixture of being and non-being. We may be sad now, but we may be happy in the future or the other way round. Boil it all down, and no one can truthfully say ‘I am’. If like Hamlet we make our own ‘being’ the question, we will carry a weight that is unbearable.

The truth is that there is only One who is ‘I am’. There is One who is infinite and immutable. Philosopher Paul Tillich called this One, ‘the Ground of all Being’. Those who know Jesus know Him as the great I Am. The One who is.

This is not just Truth it is also good news for us. It relieves us of the dilemma of being or not being because in Him we live and move and have our being. We live on God, not on ourselves. Our happiness or sadness, our every experience is a passing shadow that doesn’t make or break us. God makes us or breaks us. We live on Him and derive everything from Him.

He is the One who sent Moses to call His people to Himself and He is the One who came to earth, and calls His people to Himself as the Great I Am. Even more: when we come to Him we find ‘being’ and ‘joy’ actually always go together. Sadness is from brokenness and broken things disintegrate. Joy comes from true things and the Truest Being of all, can never break. God is our being and joy. Even physical death will not stop us from being in Him.