He heard himself do it on a doorstep in June and it stopped him in the road.
The woman four doors up needed a wheelbarrow for a weekend. He has one. He said yes before she finished the sentence, because that is what he does and everybody on that street knows it.
And then he said: back by Sunday if you can, I have got the beds to do.
Which was not true.
He did not have the beds to do. He had no plans for that barrow for at least a fortnight and possibly the rest of the summer. The sentence came out fully formed and it came out with a reason attached, and the reason was invented while he was speaking it.
He walked back up his own path thinking about that.
He is the man on the street who lends. Ladder, barrow, jump leads, the long hose, the good spade. Nobody has ever been refused. If you knocked at ten at night he would put shoes on.
And there has never once been a handover without a date.
Back by Sunday. Whenever you are done, honestly, though I might want it Thursday. No rush at all, just before the weekend if you can. He has been saying versions of that sentence for thirty years and he has never once heard it until June.
The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof
Stand in the path a minute, because there is a line in the Psalms that settles the ownership question above your shed rather than inside it.
The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.Psalm 24:1
The fulness thereof.
That is everything in it. The barrow is in there. So is the hose and the good spade and the shed they live in, and so is the ground the shed stands on, and so are you and the woman four doors up, because the verse ends on they that dwell therein.
Nothing is disputed about your having the barrow. You have it. The Psalm is not a transfer notice and no one is coming for your tools. That is what is written, and the Holy Spirit has never once come for a single shed, barrow or spade.
What the verse does is move the top of the chain, and once the top of the chain is above your head the return date stops being a fact about the barrow and starts being a fact about you.
Hear this on your own path. You are not a grasping man, and the written word is what settles it. Scripture puts the fulness of the earth in His hands and leaves yours holding a barrow you may lend at will, and the Holy Spirit is the one who has had you saying yes on that street for thirty years.
Now let me name what the date is doing, because it is not stinginess and calling it stinginess would be wrong and you would stop reading.
The date is a thread.
You have said yes, fully, and you meant it, and the thing has gone out of your hands. And the sentence at the end keeps one thread attached to it, so that at any moment you could pull, and you never do, and you never intend to. But the thread is there and the thread is what makes the giving survivable. The written word puts the fulness of the earth in His hands, and the Holy Spirit has carried you through thirty years of yes without that thread being needed once.
Thirty years of yes with a thread on it.
Hear this too, and let it land where you stood in the road. You are not being asked to give anything away, and Scripture is what says so. What is written puts the ownership above the shed and never once requires a man to part with his tools, and the Spirit of God has not spent thirty years making you generous in order to ask you for a barrow at the end of it.
And let me be plain about the shape of this page, because this subject gets handled badly and it will not be handled badly here. Nothing is being requested of you. Not by me, not by this site, not by any church or organization anywhere. Nobody who teaches you anything has a claim on what is in your shed, and the day somebody tells you otherwise you may close the door on them with a clear conscience.
The whole of it is one lending, with the thread off.
So this week you hand something over and you stop talking after take it.
That is it. Not a bigger thing, not a longer loan, not a change in how much you lend, because you lend more than anybody on that street already and the Holy Spirit built that in you over thirty years.
One handover. Take it. And then say nothing else about it at all, and let whatever comes up in your chest come up, because that is the whole experiment and it will be over in about four seconds.
The written word puts the fulness of the earth in His hands and leaves you standing there holding a barrow, and the Holy Spirit has made you the man on the street who says yes at ten at night, so nothing about cutting the thread makes you a less careful man.
And if the barrow comes back in a fortnight instead of a Sunday, nothing has happened. It was never going to be used. That was invented on a doorstep in June and you heard it and that is why you are reading this.
Declare this over yourself
Say these on your own path where you heard yourself. You are in Christ and Christ is in you, and the Holy Spirit has made you a lending man according to the written word, so the standing you speak from was never built out of what comes back and when. Whether the barrow is home on Sunday or in a fortnight, the outcome is His to decide, and it is never a measure of the man who says yes at ten at night.
- Sentence I add to the end of every lending, you are not organization and you are coming off this week. Scripture says the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, and the barrow is inside that and so is the shed and so is the ground it stands on.
- Thread I keep attached to everything that leaves my hands, get off this path, in the name of Jesus. The written word never once asked a man to part with his tools, and the Spirit of God has spent thirty years making me the one who puts shoes on at ten at night.
- Lord, the earth is Yours and the fulness of it, and Your Spirit has had me saying yes on this street for thirty years, exactly as it is written. I am handing one thing over this week and stopping talking after take it, and the barrow goes out clean with the thread cut off it.
Psalm 24:1
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