I was regretting the past and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking:

“My name is, I Am.”

He paused.

I waited.

He continued,

“When you live in the past with it’s mistakes and regrets, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not, I Was.

When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, it is hard. I am not there. My name is not, I Will Be.

When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here. My name is, I Am.”

Helen Mallicoat

Judges 16

Sampson taught me my first glimmer of wisdom. I was in the sixth grade and madly infatuated with a handsome boy in my Sunday youth group. He, in turn, was infatuated with someone else.

The someone he was infatuated with wasn’t a very nice girl. She attended church only under duress and while there pouted, snarled, and pretty much tried to make the rest of us miserable. I couldn’t understand why he liked her, yet I tried my best to act just like her so he would like me!

One Sunday, after having said something mean, despicable and nasty to a visiting teen (who probably thought she’d landed in the only Sunday School class in hell), my wannabe paramour finally noticed me with approval — but I was feeling rather sick to my stomach and ashamed of myself.

Mrs. Worthington stepped into the room to start class and I stared at my lesson book in misery while we read about Sampson and Delilah. While listening to the story, I could see the boy I’d been trying to impress still laughing about what I’d said. I could see the new girl trying not to cry. And I felt abominable.

And somewhere in all of that, I realized I was behaving just like Sampson! I wanted someone who wasn’t worth my time or effort, and because of it, I was doing incredibly horrid and self-destructive things.

Poof! Infatuation ended. I did try to apologize to the new girl, but she wasn’t very receptive — not that I blame her. And I walked out of that classroom a bit older and wiser than when I walked in.