Casting Crowns – “Who Am I” (Devotional)
As I drove a backcountry road in Alabama late one night, a thought hit me: Mark, really, youΓÇÖre a vapor. YouΓÇÖre no bigger than a minute. YouΓÇÖre here and gone. Nobody is going to remember you in a hundred years because youΓÇÖre not the point here. So the truth that youΓÇÖre so small and so broken and so self-destructive and so self-absorbed yet God cares about you anyway? ThatΓÇÖs what you should share.
I decided to share this message of GodΓÇÖs sovereignty through music.
IΓÇÖve realized this songΓÇÖs big truth is that, before you can truly understand who you are in Christ, you first must understand who youΓÇÖre not. I believe that is where I had missed it. At different times, I had mistakenly viewed my relationship with God from each of two wrong perspectives:
- Entitlement: This occurs when an imperfect, broken person believes he or she deserves something, anything, from a holy God. It surfaces in puffed-up pronouncements like, ΓÇ£IΓÇÖm GodΓÇÖs chosen child. IΓÇÖm a royal priesthood. I have the right to claim this in my life.ΓÇ¥ We get to that point by thinking that weΓÇÖre something weΓÇÖre really not because of something that we have done: ΓÇ£I came to the Lord. I found Jesus.ΓÇ¥ The Bible says that no one seeks God. No one. (Psalm 53:2-3)
- In the red: I heard Pastor John Piper call this ΓÇ£The DebtorΓÇÖs Ethic.ΓÇ¥ It is a works-based approach in which everything a believer does is out of duty to repay Jesus. No one can repay Him. ItΓÇÖs impossibleΓÇöso this approach to a relationship with God is impossible.
This song reminds us that God says,ΓÇ£IΓÇÖm huge and youΓÇÖre not, but I love you anyway. This is all because of me, not because of you. You didnΓÇÖt do this. ItΓÇÖs not because of who you are, not because of what youΓÇÖve done, and not because you decided one day, ΓÇÿI think IΓÇÖm going to be noble today and come to God,ΓÇÖ because there was nothing in you that sought me. Yes, you are more than a conqueror now, but not because you did the conquering or already were something worthy.ΓÇ¥
In asking ourselves the question ΓÇ£Who am I?ΓÇ¥ weΓÇÖre giving God his deserved opportunity to answer, ΓÇ£Just look at who I AM.ΓÇ¥