Each day we get up and have many choices we can make. Who will I talk to today? What will I accomplish when I sit down in the office. Can I meet the deadline for that report, or do the numbers match as they should when we hit the bottom line on the budget? All valid things. All necessary things. But what if in the midst of plowing through all of those things we forget to look up and see what's going on around us? Or more importantly, who is around us?
In the Oldham home, we are Hobbit heads. We love the Lord of the Rings triology and own all of the extended versions. At least once a month we watch all three. While it may take a week to do so, it is fun and as we quote along with our favorite characters, I have discovered something. The destruction of the ring becomes a secondary story somewhere in the Mines of Moria. What becomes more important is each characters journey to find out who they are and what they are made of. The task of destroying the ring took a back seat to the journey of self-discovery.
Even more important is the journey away from who they were as individuals and towards the collective fellowship. Each character puts aside self-preservation, and at times personal greviences for the greater good. Sam happens to be my favorite and the line that I love comes when Frodo makes the decision to leave the fellowship and head out on his own. Sam will have none of it and walks out into the water, not knowing how to swim so he can make the journey with Frodo. He tells Frodo: "Don't you leave him Samwise Gamgee, Gandalf said. And I don't intend to MR. Frodo, I don't intend to."
The journey together. Who will I come beside? Who will come beside me and will we at all cost not leave each other as we make our journey toward Jesus?
"So let's do it--full of belief, confident that we are presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big day approaching." [Hebrews 10:22-25 The MSG]
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