THE BORROW PIT

"Borrow Pit" was not a term I was familiar with when I first heard it. I have since found out there are a number of them around. Can you guess what a Borrow Pit is?

A Borrow Pit is where we borrow pure, clean (no sand or topsoil), clay. Of course we just "borrow" the clay to use in the construction of a road, a lease pad, a pad for a new plant, or in our case an airstrip. Pure, clean clay is important to build a solid foundation so we borrow that clay from the Borrow Pit. (See Borrow Pit).

Yes, we do pay the Pit back. Only we pay it back with all the bad dirt we cannot use because it is too wet, poor quality or sand. No we do not bury topsoil. Topsoil must be stripped and kept aside and then replaced when the job is done. Here are some of the terms I hear on the radio in my vehicle for the stuff used to payback the Borrow Pit - slop, junk, crap, s***, bad dirt, waste, garbage, dump, muck, pit material, in the borrow.

At one time our Borrow Pit was about 60 feet deep. Now it is nearly full of unusable dirt. We are also responsible to reclaim the landscape after the pit is full to make the site look natural again. Some Pits are not filled and left as ponds but still need to be returned to a natural state.

Our Borrow Pit

Debris waiting to be pushed into the Borrow Pit

I thank God today that Jesus Christ is my Borrow Pit. From Him I have received the only righteousness that God accepts. In Christ I am pure and clean and accepted in the presence of a Holy God for all eternity. Jesus Christ took my sin and in exchange gave me the gift of eternal life and justification. Praise God that He has provided a Borrow Pit where eternal life can be exchanged for the filth of our sin. I will thank God forever. One of my favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 5.21, "For our sake he (God) made him (Christ) to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him (Christ) we (me) might become the righteousness of God."

After the Borrow Pit is reclaimed the site may look even better than before it was excavated but it is full of useless and unusable dirt. We can make ourselves look good and acceptable to God but only God can make us righteous and justified before Him, and He does that through the work of the cross. Those who put their trust in God to save them through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ are new creations not sinners dressed in new clothes.