Leave your Shire

“This is it. If I take one more step, it will be the farthest away from home that I’ve ever been.” ~ Samwise Gamgee

In J.R.R. Tokien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, the hobbits Frodo and Sam flee the Shire at Gandalf’s urging. Gandalf discovered that Frodo’s uncle Bilbo’s ring was none other than the one ring. As in “the one ring to rule them all.”

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

In the beginning of their journey, Frodo and Sam pause in a field on the border of the Shire. Sam says with hesitancy, “This is it. If I take one more step, it will be the farthest away from home that I’ve ever been.” Frodo simply responds, “Come on, Sam.”

And so the journey begins…

They accumulate a group of unlikely helpers along the way which includes dwarves, men, elves – and Gandalf the wizard. Through hardship and determination, centered around a heroic mission, these bond together to become “the fellowship.”

The closer they get to destroying the ring in the land of Mordor, the more difficult it is for Frodo. He’s aided by his best friend – the ever-hopeful encourager, Sam.

In the final book of this magnficent trilogy, The Two Towers, Frodo has reached his limit. Whereas before he had encouraged Sam, “Come on, Sam,” now Sam grittily urges Frodo on when Frodo helplessly cries out, “I can’t do this, Sam!”

Sam responds:

“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 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, because they were holding on to something.”

Frodo responded in exhaustion, “What are we holding on to, Sam?” And Sam says:

Watch the scene here:

What if?

If you’ve never seen the movies or read the books, you may not be able to feel the feels. But this is one of the most quoted scenes of the LOTR trilogy. Profoundly, it wasn’t in the original movie script.

“That scene was not written in the original script. The writers went back to the book, found that speech, and we went back and filmed it. In the middle of a billion-dollar [franchise] and all that comes with that, Peter Jackson was able to navigate that space in a way that was really heartfelt and meaningful.” ^[1]Sam’s Epic Speech in THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS Originally Wasn’t In The Film, by Joy Paur (Geek Tyrant, 2018)

It’s a scene of epic struggle. Frodo, the intrepid and unlikely hero-hobbit almost gives up, but he’s prodded on by a friend who both believes in him and understands the larger mission. Failure to persevere would mean the triumph of evil.

You may be tempted to ask, “What if Frodo hadn’t left the Shire?” Wouldn’t his life have been more peaceful? He could have avoided so much loss and pain. It may sound obvious, but there wouldn’t have been a struggle if they hadn’t left the Shire. Struggle-free zones sound attractive and compelling. Progress often means progress through trial.

“I know we are going to take a very long road, into darkness; but I know I can’t turn back. It isn’t to see Elves now, nor dragons, nor mountains, that I want – I don’t rightly know what I want: but I have something to do before the end, and it lies ahead, not in the Shire.“

Frodo and Sam represent all of us – ordinary, little people who carry about with little, routine, ordinary lives. Then one day, we are thrust into a tale that has eternal consequences. Only later do we realize that the adventure is not optional. The march of evil will eventually sweep us up into it. Non-participation is not possible.

You can’t stay in your Shire.

Too many Christians have stayed in our Shires. Whether consciously or not, we have tried to avoid the pain and hardship of a hell-bent world that is pervasively succumbing to evil. We may hope that things will pass us by. Perhaps we can continue with soccer practices, shopping trips, social media and the occasional good deed and no one would be the wiser.

Shires are comfortable places, after all. Why would we leave? The world out there? Bad. The Shire? Good.

And yet… non-participation is not an option. We will all eventually be swept up into the march of evil. It is not benign. It metastasizes. It spreads.

In his wonderful study, Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby said, “You can’t stay where you are and go with God.”

God is most assuredly “on the move” in our day. He is at work around us, and He invites you into His activity. If we depend on Him for guidance, hope and grittily encourage and remind one another “why we’re doing this,” we will discover that Another has gone before us, has won the Victory and beckons us forward through it all to join Him. It’s time to embark upon an adventure that has chosen us, with a King whose return is inevitable.