The “I AM” and the Liberation of Escaping the Past Tense

How many of us carry the spectral weight of “I was” through our days, allowing a past self, a past failure, a past wound, to dictate the very contours of our present existence? This relentless grip of what Escaping the Past Tense seeks to address is not merely a matter of regrettable memories, but a profound ontological problem, often manifesting as a spiritual and psychological burden. We find ourselves, not unlike the ancient Israelites in Egypt, in a certain servitude of the mortar, laboring under the heavy, dusty weight of yesterday’s failures, yesterday’s identities, and yesterday’s limitations. It is a peculiar kind of bondage, one where the chains are often forged not by an external oppressor, but by the very narratives we tell ourselves about who we are, based on who we *were*. Is there not a deeper truth, a more liberating reality, available to those whose lives are meant to be defined not by the sediment of what has passed, but by the living water of eternal presence?

The answer, I believe, lies in a profound theological truth, one crystallized in the burning bush encounter between God and Moses. When Moses, overwhelmed by the enormity of his calling, asks for God’s name, the reply resonates across millennia: “I AM WHO I AM” (Exodus 3:14). This is not a casual self-introduction; it is a declaration of divine ontology, a revelation of God’s absolute self-existence, His eternal presentness. God is not “I was” or “I will be”; He is “I AM.” His being is pure actuality, unconditioned by temporal shifts, unbounded by prior states or future possibilities. This divine “I AM” is the very antithesis of the “broken cisterns” Jeremiah describes, those self-made, cracked reservoirs that can hold no living water, only the stagnant residue of past efforts and disappointments. Our core solution to the persistent ache of the past tense is not simply to forget, but to re-anchor our very sense of self in the unchangeable, ever-present reality of God’s being.

The Ontology of God and Escaping the Past Tense

The concept of God as “I AM” holds radical implications for our human struggle with identity and freedom. If God is pure, unadulterated existence, then He is the source and sustainer of all true being. Our existence, then, finds its truest definition not in what we have accumulated, accomplished, or failed at, but in our relationship to the One who simply *is*. This theological bedrock provides the most potent framework for Escaping the Past Tense. Consider the weight of shame that often accompanies past transgressions. Shame tells us, “You *are* what you *did*.” Guilt says, “You *did* something wrong.” But shame goes deeper, aiming to define our very essence. The “I AM” of God confronts this directly. In Christ, our past is not erased in some cosmic amnesia, but it is redeemed, transformed, and ultimately superseded by a new identity. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). This “new creation” is not a gradual amendment of the old, but a radical re-orientation, a transplantation into a new reality where our primary definition is derived from Christ’s eternal present, not our temporal past.

This understanding moves beyond a mere psychological reframing. It is a theological reality that impacts our very being. The Heidelberg Catechism asks, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” The answer begins, “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” This declaration fundamentally alters the dominion of the past. If I belong to Christ, then my identity is not derived from my fluctuating performance, my regrettable decisions, or the wounds I’ve suffered. My identity is found in Him who always *is*. This frees us from the tyranny of the chronological record, allowing us to embrace a spiritual autobiography defined by divine grace and present communion, rather than human frailty and historical fact. It’s a profound shift from a self-definition rooted in what we *were* to one grounded in who we *are* in Christ, an identity that resonates with the eternal “I AM.”