We Are All Frodo - Carl Creasman

I love The Lord of the Rings. I read it first back in the late 1970s just as I was getting into mythology, role playing games, elves, magic and spiritual depth. The characters capture so much power about life. As I have aged, I realize more deeply just how great J.R.R. Tolkien’s work is. There are truths within that can guide you to the path of success.

In the end, all of our lives are like Frodo. We are hunted by evil, yet we can’t hide. We’ve been given a quest, a future to unfold, a journey forward. We were minding our own business when someone, some great angelic spirit, arrives and tells us that the insignificant thing in our life actually is part of a powerful story and that we are called upon to deal with it. So, off we go, hunted by a great enemy who desires to destroy you.

The movie trailer for Peter Jackson’s vision of the classic work had these words shoot across the screen between key visions:

Fate has chosen him.

A Fellowship will protect him.

Evil will hunt them.

Those words could be used for your own life, though I would change the opening phrase to read “God has chosen you.” God is the “Greater power for Good” that Tolkien implied when he wrote those words for Gandalf to state. Tolkien, a deep Christian, understood that only through his faith in Jesus Christ could he overcome the terrors that he had experienced personally in the trenches of World War I.

But there is another deep truth within those words from the movie screen. Yes, in the end, each of us is Frodo. And yet, at the same time, each of us is Sam, a faithful friend who will go the distance with the Frodo’s of our lives. If you’ve read the books, you know that the true hero is Sam, who remains faithful to his friend throughout the journey through the darkest of nights. I offer to you that making a real success journey will only happen with partnership, with community. And, you need to be making the investment in others, being their “Sam” helping them succeed in life.

Or, we are Aragorn, a powerful friend who steps into the fray, not really part of the story (or is he), but willing, with our sword and our life, to defend Frodo. Or, we are a Gandalf, a strong spiritual advisor. Maybe we are a Pippin or Merry, close friends, not as close as Sam, but still in there hanging with our Frodo friend. Perhaps we are just Farmer Magee, able to lend a happy meal and place of refuge for one night. In the end, though, we are all part of the tale of each of our lives.

Never lose sight of this as we head, as a country, through perilous times. We are on the journey together.

We are part of a grand tale. Don’t lose sight of it!

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