The Dithering of a District Diva

If you know me, you know I love my movies and my TV and that I glean life lessons from them regularly.  That’s just how I roll. You might also know that my love for all things Lord of the Rings will never die.  So in honor of the LOTR’s prequel ‘The Hobbit’ being released today, I’m posting my first ever “5 for Friday”: The top 5  Life Lessons from ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ You’re welcome 🙂

1) Don’t Fear Death: In the last film, LOTR: The Return of the King, the remnants of the Fellowship (Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas) are coming up with a diversion to make sure that Frodo could finish his quest to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring.  When Legolas comes up with the plan, Gimli says, “Certainty of death, small chance of success… What are we waiting for?” and they all ride bravely off into what should be a suicide mission, as they’ve pretty much done throughout the series. This is not at all what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about the Elves, people, the Elves.  In the second film, LOTR: The Two Towers, Elrond’s band of Elves are on their way to The Undying Lands (Heaven, if you will, Nirvana, if you won’t) and are leaving the humans to battle Sauroman and Sauron’s armies alone.  Then, they have a change of heart.  Yes, they could’ve gone straight up to The Undying Lands without feeling any pain at all and lived in harmony and beauty forever. But they chose not to. They chose to stay and fight on the front lines during the Battle of Helms Deep and every last single one of those elves bit the dern dust.  Why is this significant? These Elves knew they would probably die, but they also knew where they were going afterward! That’s why they did not fear death and they did not fear pain because they knew it would only be temporary. They knew their rightful place was in The Undying Lands and they therefore had no reason to fear.

Christians, this ought to be you.  You ought not live in fear of death or pain or destruction of this world because you know where you’re going! You know that at the end of all things, you will be living in beauty and paradise and surrounded by love and all good things.  That ought to make you fearless!  Not reckless, not YOLO, mind you — not like Gimli and our band of lovable (and seksi) heroes were living, prepared to die in a blaze of glory.  You know that your blaze of glory comes AFTERward.  That ought to give you wings to do something great on this Earth and lead more people to the freedom to do great things fearlessly, as well.

Be elvish, my people, be elvish.

(Scripture reference: 1 Thesaalonians 4:13-18: “Do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope…we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore comfort each other with these words.”)

2)  Speak Against Evil: In the first film, LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring, Gandalf and the rest of the Fellowship are being chased by a Balrog, a demon of Morgoth. In one of the most famous (and short) speeches in movie history, Gandalf stays behind as the Fellowship runs to safety, looks that demon square in the eyes and speaks to it forcefully, saying, “You shall not pass. YOU– SHALL NOT –PASS!” And what do you know? The Balrog doesn’t pass. OK, Gandalf doesn’t either, but he did what he set out to do, which was to keep the demon from getting past him and killing Frodo who had the One Ring.

We see this again in the second film, The Two Towers, when Sméagol, the schizophrenic former Hobbit, is battling his evil side, Gollum, who was corrupted by the One Ring. Gollum is trying to tell Sméagol that Sméagol has no friends, nobody likes him and Sméagol can trust nobody but Gollum and Sméagol must therefore, kill his master, Frodo, and his companion Sam, and get back the One Ring.  Sméagol knows Gollum is evil and “tricksy,” and not to be trusted, so he speaks to his evil side, “Leave now and never come back!” He says this to Gollum over and over again until Gollum flees!

Of course, Gollum catches Sméagol at a weak moment later on and is therefore able to take control over his mind again, which is why, especially in our weakest and darkest moments, we must stay on our guard and continue to speak forcefully against evil, whether it’s internal or external.

(Scriptural reference: Matthew 4:10: “Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written,” then quote whatever scripture applies to the evil you’re fighting against!)

3) Look beyond the faults of others : There is something powerful about seeing the best in other people even when they are not showing us their best.  That simple act of grace on your part can not only give you peace about another person’s bad actions, but it can also stop someone in the midst of their bad actions.  In the Fellowship of the Ring, Frodo and Boromir’s climactic interaction is a perfect example of this.  At the end of this film, Boromir becomes corrupted by the One Ring and tries to take it from Frodo’s hands.  Though Frodo is afraid of Boromir in the moment, he  doesn’t hold Boromir’s actions against him.  Frodo remembers that Boromir has not only pledged to protect and defend Frodo on this journey to destroy the One Ring, but Frodo also knows that Boromir has actually done just that up until this point.  Acknowledging that Boromir is a good and loyal person who is doing something out of character by trying to attack Frodo and take the ring, Frodo says to Boromir, “You are not yourself!”  Frodo knows that it is not Boromir who is trying to hurt him and steal the ring, it’s the One Ring that’s corrupting everything, which is why Frodo must destroy it.  That’s grace. Frodo doesn’t condemn Boromir because he knows Boromir’s heart. As a result, Boromir comes back to himself and is immediately sorry for trying to take the ring.

Another example is Sam and Frodo, throughout the trilogy.  On more than one occasion, Frodo tries to get rid of Sam and go on the quest alone, but Sam refuses to leave Frodo’s side. Sam knows Frodo cannot carry the burden of the One Ring alone.  In Return of the King, Frodo goes the farthest he’s ever gone in trying to push Sam away.  Frodo believes Gollum’s lies that Sam is trying to steal the ring from him and so Frodo violently pushes his best friend to the ground and tells him with evil eyes, “Go home, Sam. I don’t need you!” Mind you, Sam has crossed most of Middle Earth with Frodo, fought for and with him and protected him from dangers seen and unseen and here Frodo is believing that Sam could betray him so terribly and banishes poor, faithful Sam.

 But of course, Sam knows Frodo is strung out on the One Ring and is not himself, so he follows Frodo and Gollum from a distance, continuing to look out for Frodo. It is because of Sam’s great faith in Frodo that Frodo is able to come back to himself.  That’s a good friend! And that’s how we should be with each other, always providing grace to people who make mistakes and are acting unlike themselves.  We never know what people are dealing with or what stresses they are under, so we should try and look beyond the mistakes they are making, remember what good characteristics they have and try to help them as much as we can.

4) Do not Fear Your Past: Aragorn had issues, y’all.  The Age of Men is ending and it’s all his ancestor Isildur’s fault and so Aragorn is feeling like it’s his fault, too.   Back in the day, Sauron came to destroy mankind with the help of the One Ring to Rule Them All, and he killed Isildur’s father, Elendil, making Isildur the King of Gondor immediately.  Isildur then (temporarily) destroyed Sauron by cutting off Sauron’s finger that had the One Ring on it. But instead of taking the One Ring to Mount Doom and casting it into the fire as Elrond told Isildur to do so that everyone could be free of its corruption, Isildur got fancy and thought that the One Ring looked right nice on his own finger and said, NAWL, to Elrond.  Of course, the power of the One Ring corrupted everyone in contact of it and Isildur was murdered over it.  Which brings us to Isildur’s heir to the throne of Gondor and the leader of The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn.

Aragorn’s guilt over Isildur’s failure made him run away from Gondor and become a ranger. While he was happy to step up and help The Fellowship protect Frodo on Frodo’s journey to destroy the One Ring at Mount Doom, Aragorn did not want to take any role in his homeland, Gondor, least of all his rightful place on the throne as king. He was too afraid that Isildur’s weakness ran in his own veins and he too would be a failure. That fear kept him from achieving his greatness.

Sometimes, we live like Aragorn, whether it’s because of a mistake we made ourselves or a mistake our family member’s made. My mother was an alcoholic, so I’ll be an alcoholic, my father wasn’t there, so I’m not going to be there for my children, the excuses / fear go on and on.

But let me tell you about the epic failures Jesus had in his own family tree:   Rahab was a prostitute, Judah and Tamar were adulterers and King David was an adulterer and a murderer and the list goes on.  God allowed Christ to come through these flawed individuals to show us first that He can do anything He wants with any number of screw-ups. He’s God.  He also did this to show us that we are not where we come from.  Because of Christ, we are free not only from our own mistakes, but also from the mistakes of our family.  We don’t ever have to be them and once we surrender our past to God, we don’t ever have to be burdened by it again.

With the help of friends who loved him and believed in his purpose, Aragorn was able to overcome his fear and take his rightful place on the throne of Gondor.  It’s time we defeated fear and took our rightful place in this world too!

(Scripture reference: Galatians 5:1 “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”)

 5)There Are God-Given Things Worth Fighting For: In the second movie, The Two Towers, Sam is encouraging a dwindling Frodo with these words: “They kept going. Because they were holding on to something….That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.” As usual, Sam is right on the money.  Every beautiful and good thing on this earth comes from the Lord (James 1:17) and if He gave it to you, you’d better believe that the Devil/Eye of Sauron/Saruoman/Orks will try and come for it! And you’d better be prepared to fight to hold on to what He gave you.

Whether it’s the blood relatives He put into your life, the dear friends he put into your path, the passion he stirred up in your heart, the planet he placed you on,  the PEACE JOY LOVE LIFE He left you with, these are gifts from the Lord and they are worth guarding and worth fighting for.

So take up your Anduil sword, Sons of Gondor! And give yourself a speech like Aragorn’s when you’re at a Black Gate in your own life:

“A day may come when the courage of Men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship– But it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the Age of Man comes crashing down — But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth I bid you stand, Men of the West!”

Fight against anything that would come to take your peace, your joy, your life, your health, your strength, your passions, your family and friends. What God gave to YOU is YOURS and the enemy can’t have it! Take back your stuff!

(Scriptural Reference: Ephesians 6:11:  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.)

Comments

comments