Since 2007 this blog has been called “Borrowed Light”. An explanation for the title used to be on the blog somewhere. With a changing theme and a much wider audience, I thought it might be helpful to explain why this blog is called Borrowed Light.
The name itself comes from a line out of the diary of Robert Murray McCheyne. On March 20, 1832 after reading part of the Life of Jonathan Edwards, McCheyne wrote these words:
How feeble my spark of Christianity appear beside such a sun! But even his was a borrowed light, and the same source is still open to enlighten me.
When I went to pick a name for the blog I chose Borrowed Light for these four reasons:
- A reminder that men of history are only lights. I am a history nerd. I have a tendency to revere men. This is a reminder that they are but men—faithfully shining from the one true Light, Jesus Christ.
- I’m only a light. If the Lord saw fit to make me a “man of history” I too would be but a dim light compared to the radiant Son.
- But I’m called to shine as bright as the Lord sees fit. There is encouragement in McCheyen’s words. Edwards was but a man drinking from a great fountain. That same fountain is opened up to us. Take, drink, enjoy, and shine.
- Christ is to be the only boast of this generation. For quite some time I’ve had this in my office. “My mandate: so live and so study and so serve and so preach and so write that Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen God, be the only boast of this generation”. Borrowed Light is a constant reminder that it’s all about Jesus and not the one that is borrowing His light.
