Remember what stories are worth telling…
Frodo and Sam are in Osgiliath. It’s under evil attack. Frodo is becoming entranced by the power of the Ring and he appears incoherent as he staggers toward a Nazgûl. Seemingly resolved to give up on the fight to continue his mission, Frodo offers the Ring to the Nazgûl and nearly puts it on. This is when his good friend Sam comes to the rescue, pulls him away from the evil entity, and saves the story. They fall to the ground. An infuriated and delusional Frodo takes his sword and points it towards Sam’s throat. After a few seconds Frodo comes back to reality, drops his sword and says, “I can’t do this Sam.” Sam’s response is true not only of Frodo’s journey, but also of your story:
“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights, we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you that meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”
Frodo then asks, “What are we holding on to Sam?” Sam holds out hope: “That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”
Sometimes it feels like you don’t have what it takes to finish your own story. It feels as if everything is wrong and “by rights,” you shouldn’t even be here. Heaviness comes over you. The scars remind you of how far you have come… but how far you still have to go. Evil is set against you. Hell is bent on destroying you. Adversaries have made your demise their personal mission in life. Friends fail you. Close friends betray you. Failures haunt you. Regret taunts you. And amidst the whirlwind of all this pain, your spiritual nemesis causes you to question the meaningfulness of your mission and doubt the redemptive value of your life.
Remember that the stories worth telling are stories of desperate accounts where “folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”
This was Frodo’s story. This is the story of the Bible. This is the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And this is your story.
It’s in times like this we all need a Samwise – a trustworthy friend who can break through all the madness, love us through the doubtful times, and encourage us to finish our race.
Dear friend: Your story derives its value not despite your pain and suffering, but because of it. It’s a story worth telling… and it’s darn well worth fighting for!