If it's not mine to give...is it mine to give up?

Really confused right now. It is so much easier to listen to other peoples ideas and then regurgitate them as my own. I have been really trying the last while to come up with original thoughts or ideas...well I am sure they are not original ideas, but for me they are. One concept that I have been rolling around in my mind over the past few days is about the concept of "owning things". And along with this comes the idea of owning my life. I guess what happened to calcify this concept in my mind was on Sunday when Sarah and I were talking about generosity and giving (I won't steal her thunder-check out her blog http://www.everylittlewonder.com/ for more on that). What I am stuggling with is the idea of living a "God-centered life" and how ultimately, I do not think that this is right. Our church did a one year focus on this and it was profound and impactful to our church and it was truly important to talk about since I believe a lot of people, myself included were living with "Christianity on the side" or as something we added to our life whenever we wanted. The concept of Christ centered living is the idea that God is at the the center of our life and he will permiate all of the other areas of our life. This is a great way to live...but consider this...If everything is in fact God's anyway...than my life is not my own and I should not be able to make these kinds of distinctions. My language would change and I would refer to this as Gods life that he is allowing me to be a part of, maybe even at the center of, rather than the inverse, which is what I have always lived like. I would treat things much differently, respect it more...like I was borrowing something valuable from a friend, and wanted to give it back in pristine condition. For example, our friends Dave and Katie lent us their ladder while we were doing reno's and painting last spring. It was an awesome ladder too...the ones that can be like 100 different ladders all in one...and it was virtually brand new! So after we had used it very carefully and respectfully, and only for its designed purposes, they asked for it back. I packed it up to take back to them only to discover that we had gotten white paint all over it. I was mortified and embarrassed when I returned it. I was apologetic when I gave it back to them, but their response was simple, and looking back impactful. They both said "when you lend a ladder to someone for painting, you expect to get it back with some paint on it...it's kind of assumed". Hmm, thats fairly true I suppose. So, here in lies the completion of this metaphor- God gives us a life to use ( but its his, not ours) and we should use it for its intended purpose ( thats a whole other blog...and by someone way smarter than me) and eventually he is going to ask for it back...and he will expect there to be some scuffs on it...and that is fine, just so long as we used it well. The point I am making though, is that this life, and by extension, anything we "own" or "have" in this life, does not in fact belong to us! Therefore, it should be much easier to hold loosely to things, and to give things away and not require more all the time. This makes you view life very differently, and I feel as though I am at a begining point of finding out what this looks and feels like. Some people say "life is a gift"...but its not...life is a loan! And the One who gave it to us is going to want it back at some point, and are we going to give it back broken, used up, abused, neglected and empty, or are we going to give it back, filled up, full of experiences and Love and Joy, poured out and filled up again, cracked, but repaired, a well lived life! I hope its the latter, not the former. The problem is...this puts the idea of "giving something up for Lent" in a very different light. But its not a problem for now, its a problem when I am actually living the way in which I have described. Its not a problem now because I can find LOTS of things I don't want to "give up" because they are important to me, but hopefully next year at this time, the disciplines surrounding Lent will be so ingrained in my heart and life, that I will not in fact feel like I am giving something up. but rather, using the life God lent to me to fulfill His purpose for it...living a Full life. Geez my brain hurts! Tell me your thoughts on this... I have little in the way of frame of reference...so I could just be nuts, but I would like to hear YOUR opinion.