Len Woods, author of the book, “Unofficial Guide to Life After High School,” says that “borrowed faith is when people talk about God and do things for God instead of spending time with God.”
What is the difference between renting something and owning something ... how do you treat it? Think about it ... when you have borrowed something from some one else how do you treat it ... does it have the same value as something you have spent hard earned money on? For the most part, I think I value things that I've worked for more than things that are given to me or that I borrowed from some one else.
The same is true of my faith. I grew up in the church. I was an acolyte, in the youth group, and loved being at church but ... I did church ... I didn't really have a relationship with God. I didn't spend time trying to get to know God outside of my youth ministers talks or our Sunday school class. I had a borrowed faith - maybe my mom's cause she took me or my youth ministers because he was an amazing guy or even my priest because he told great stories. But it wasn't like I knew God outside of what I learned from them.
How did I get to know God on my own? I had to work at it! I had a crisis of faith in college and ended up going to look for answers by reading the bible and talking to God out loud in my school chapel. It was only once I started seeking God - and by seeking I mean YELLING loudly in a chapel! - that I began to have a personal relationship with the God my mom, youth minister and priest had been talking about for most of my life. It took being willing to open my dusty bible and read those weird sayings and ask myself how does this apply to my life right now - and do the hard work of actually thinking about the answer for myself!
Do you have a borrowed faith? Are you willing to do the work to own your relationship with God? I hope you are because it will be of greater value and a richer experience if you do!
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