I will take the ring to Mordor…though I do not know the way
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Written: |
4/13/09 |
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Published: |
4/13/09 |
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Bibliography: |
The Fellowship of the Ring, “Three is Company”, p. 100. |
“‘As for where I am going,’ said Frodo, ‘it would be difficult to give that away, for I have no clear idea myself, yet.’
‘…you must go,’ said Gandalf, ‘or at least set out, either North, South, West, or East—and the direction should certainly not be known.’
‘I have been so taken up with the thoughts of leaving Bag End, and of saying farewell, that I have never considered the direction,’ said Frodo. ‘For where am I to go? And by what shall I steer? What is to be my quest? Bilbo went to find a treasure, there and back again; but I go to lose one, and not return, as far as I can see.’
‘But you cannot see very far,’ said Gandalf. ‘Neither can I. It may be your task to find the Cracks of Doom, but that quest may be for others: I do not know.’”
This small conversation between Frodo and Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings gives me great peace—in it I hear the echoes of my own life story as a follower of Jesus. Jesus leads me usually with a nudge out the door—the direction I am to take is not crystal clear, I do not have clarity on exactly what I am to do and how to do it. But I sense in my heart that the Lord desires me to move, now. And so I obey—trusting that as I am moving, he will show me the next step.
The complete fulfilment of my work with Jesus in the Kingdom of God may be for someone else to complete, or to take further, but I am not called to be concerned with the overall plan, or end game—I am learning that it must be enough for me to simply know the next step, and to trust that Jesus will show me where and when to take the step after that.
I often hear people speak with great confidence that the Lord told them to do this, or led them to do that—and I wonder at their confidence. My experience of hearing God’s voice and moving in obedience is one of much less certainty. I am learning to have confidence not in my ability to hear God’s voice, but in God’s ability to get his point across to me when he needs to.
Be focussed on prayer
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Written: |
1/5/04 |
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Published: |
4/4/09 |
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Bibliography: |
“A Letter on Prayer”, The Cloud of Unknowing |
I find it difficult to remain focussed on prayer at times, and find it useful to look to the giants of the faith in the past for their lessons learned on how to live a life of prayer. The unknown 14th century author of The Cloud of Unknowing writes:
“Since you have asked me how you should control your feelings when you are praying, let me give you the best answer I can.
Let me start by saying that the best thing you can do when you start to pray, however long or short your time of prayer is to be, is to tell yourself, and mean it, that you are going to die at the end of your prayer. I am not joking when I tell you this: just think how impossible it is to tell yourself…that you are certain of living longer than the time your prayer takes.
…you will see that is quite safe to tell yourself that you are going to die, and I advise you to do so. If you do, you will find that the combination of your general sense of your own unworthiness combined with this special feeling of how short a time you have left to make a firm purpose of amendment, will concentrate your mind wonderfully on a proper fear of the Lord.
You will find this feeling taking real hold of your heart, unless (which God forbid), you manage to coax and cajole your false heart of flesh with the false security that you are going to live longer. It may well be that you are going to live beyond the time of your prayer, but it is always a false comfort to promise yourself that this will be the case and to persuade your heart to rely on it. This is because only God can know the truth of the matter, and all you can do is rely blindly on his will, without having any certainty beyond this for a moment, for the time is takes to blink an eye.”
I will give this a try.
