Warning: cheesy ‘How Lord of the Rings is like our spiritual walks’ post. You have been warned.
Right before thanksgiving break, my apartment and I ensued in what we called… LOTR madness. i.e. for twelve straight hours, we sat glued in front of the television watching all three Lord of the Rings movies (extended versions, thank you very much) in succession. Of course, around 2am on Wednesday morning we all fell asleep towards the end of Two Towers and opted to continue the next day.
Being an avid LOTR fan in my high school days, the movies got me thinking about the series in general. Because I was at work, I missed part of the first movie only to catch the entirety of the second — which was somewhat disappointing since I thought I liked TT the least out of the three.
I love beginnings because they’re new, exciting, hopeful, and momentous. I love endings because they’re definite, exciting, hopeful and momentous. What I didn’t like about Two Towers is what I often dread about life — the broken mess that is often the in betweens. Because when I think about it, I don’t like middles… they’re often just that — at the edge of hope and despair, where you know there is an end and a hope and a return of not just the king of Gondor but THE KING and yet. . .
It’s these middles that I dread yet it is here we grow, mature, and perservere. There is uncertainty yet certainty of an end… desperately wanting yet being slightly out of reach. It’s in these trenches of anxiety mixed with fear, failure, and the brief glimpses of light and triumph where I spend most of my days walking and living and breathing and being. And that… in itself makes the end that much more worthwhile.
“You cannot live your Christian life as a debt owed in fake gratitude. ‘Serve Jesus because He died for you!’ only gets you so far. Because those are just feelings, emotions that spur you towards repayment to an infinite God… and when those feelings fade, there is guilt. No, you must see the end goal, the prize, what His death has accomplished and that is GOD himself… that is how we live.”
life is war. it is not just that. but it is always that. — jp