Dizzy Izzes

Here is my suggestion to omit from the slang phrase book in 2014: “It is what it is.”

This phrase has been one of the most irritating phrases to me this year. It smacks of surrender and submission—to the wrong thing. It has tied the hands and made more victims to circumstance this year than I can count. And it brings out the mama bear in me.

Finances? “It is what it is.”

Relationships? “It is what it is.”

Employment? “It is what it is.”

Legal problems? “It is what it is.”

This time of year prompts us to believe in miracles again. The promise prophesied for thousands of years to the human race trying so hard to be good enough. 

And I hear the devil laugh…“It is what it is.”

“But you don’t know what’s happened to me this year.”

I hear you…because I am tempted to speak those same words when I visit my son in prison or the bedside of a dying friend.

And I hear the devil sneer…“It is what it is.”

God takes your “is what it is” and will make something new and wonderful with it. He takes that pain, that sorrow, that fleeting happiness and turns it around into something that sustains, encourages and reveals where Joy blooms.

Yes, well my circumstances may not change, but my attitude towards it surely can. And as I seek more of His wisdom, I start to change.

He doesn’t leave you where you are. Like Mary, He takes you by the hand and supplies what you need if you just grab hold.

“But God doesn’t talk to people anymore like Mary, she was special.”

And I hear the devil mock…“It is what it is.”

God made you; He counts the hairs on your head. He knit you together in your mother’s womb. You are so precious to Him that He sent His child onto this earth as a baby—not a man on a charging horse to strike fear into hearts. He sent a helpless baby that would grow, and love and live a life that would be an exchange for our own lives.

That is the gift that He gives us. Jesus’ life for our own, every one of us.

Tired of that phrase yet? Let me give you a new one to say: “I am who I am.”

This one is a name, not a catch phrase. God’s name is “I am.” He is not God from Biblical times, He is not God from the Apocalypse, He is the God of NOW. He is active, alive and always ready to receive His children who are tired of the same ol’ “is what it is”.

Got “is” issues? Why not seek the God who is I AM? He speaks to people through His Bible, during prayer and through other Christ followers. Seeking Christ will give the devil a kick in the “is”.

Begin right here if you want.

And I hear the devil whimper…“It is what it is.”

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