Borrowed
Borrowed
To obtain or receive something on loan with the promise or understanding of returning it or its equivalent.
I have just recently, as in this exact moment, developed an understanding of "borrowed". Up until this moment I had decided that I hated the word. Realize that the hatred stemmed from a specific incident but ended up extending beyond the original borders.
My grandfather is very sick. So sick in fact that the doctors have told him he is already living off of "borrowed" time. My initial reaction to that commonly used term was frustration. I quickly became so angry. God doesn't "lend" out time, there's no pay-back required and the beats of my grandpa's heart have been blessing and miracles... nothing borrowed there... right?
As I wrote the definition down I realized that perhaps I was very wrong. We have received this life of ours and a promise should be made, spoken or unspoken, about returning it - giving our gift right back to the Giver. "Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ!" (Romans 1:2). You and I are living off of "borrowed" time just as much as my Opa is. There are no guarantees when our last breaths will be taken, but we have already been called to give it back, trusting every aspect of our lives in His hands.
What a fresh perspective - borrowed. Also, what a treasure it is to have the answers before the questions are even asked.
"When a book has been borrowed of me and is not returned, and I have forgotten the borrower; and fret over the missing volume, ... is it not time that I lost a few things, when I care for them so unreasonably? This losing of things is the mercy of God: it comes to teach us to let them go. Or have I forgotten a thought that came to me, which seemed of the truth? I keep trying and trying to call it back, feeling a poor man until that thought be recovered -- to be far more lost, perhaps, in a notebook into which I shall never look again to find it! I forget that it is live things that God cares about.."
- George Macdonald
To obtain or receive something on loan with the promise or understanding of returning it or its equivalent.
I have just recently, as in this exact moment, developed an understanding of "borrowed". Up until this moment I had decided that I hated the word. Realize that the hatred stemmed from a specific incident but ended up extending beyond the original borders.
My grandfather is very sick. So sick in fact that the doctors have told him he is already living off of "borrowed" time. My initial reaction to that commonly used term was frustration. I quickly became so angry. God doesn't "lend" out time, there's no pay-back required and the beats of my grandpa's heart have been blessing and miracles... nothing borrowed there... right?
As I wrote the definition down I realized that perhaps I was very wrong. We have received this life of ours and a promise should be made, spoken or unspoken, about returning it - giving our gift right back to the Giver. "Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ!" (Romans 1:2). You and I are living off of "borrowed" time just as much as my Opa is. There are no guarantees when our last breaths will be taken, but we have already been called to give it back, trusting every aspect of our lives in His hands.
What a fresh perspective - borrowed. Also, what a treasure it is to have the answers before the questions are even asked.
"When a book has been borrowed of me and is not returned, and I have forgotten the borrower; and fret over the missing volume, ... is it not time that I lost a few things, when I care for them so unreasonably? This losing of things is the mercy of God: it comes to teach us to let them go. Or have I forgotten a thought that came to me, which seemed of the truth? I keep trying and trying to call it back, feeling a poor man until that thought be recovered -- to be far more lost, perhaps, in a notebook into which I shall never look again to find it! I forget that it is live things that God cares about.."
- George Macdonald
posted by Karyn at 11:32 PM
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