Hello Hurricane

The Lord of the Rings is my favourite books in the world. Yes I am one of those! I have read them and reread them. I am always astounded by how one person could write something so vast and deep. There are 2 things though that I love most about the books.

First, it is not about hobbits, elves and dwarves. Yes these are species for the characters of the story but the story is actually about relationships, honour and bravery. These are all things that as humans we can relate to.

Second, reading the books is hard work! It isn’t something that should be undertaken lightly. It took me almost 2 years to read it the first time (I read like a snail). It was hard work and sometimes I thought that I would never get through it. Having finally finished it, it felt like a real achievement (this might not be the case for you speedy readers). But here’s the thing about that, in some ways the hard work of wading through all the pages about Tom Bombadil helped me really identify with the characters and felt like I was part of this mammoth quest.

I think one of the central lessons from the book is the idea that going on a quest or adventure is a big deal. Once you commit, it will change you forever. Perhaps that’s why Tolkien made the Fellowship of the Ring feel like it was building up to the actual story before really getting into it. There is this real sense of anticipation and building towards something bigger and better. Most people I know who have tried and failed to read the book, fail because the Fellowship of the Ring is too long, too in depth and possibly a little boring at times. But that’s the reality of starting a journey. You have to prepare. You have to get ready. You have to make sure that this is for you and worth you doing. You have calculate the distance, make sure you have enough supplies, fuel and that those traveling with you are ready. Some of the tasks are tedious but necessary if you want to complete the journey.

Jesus put it like this, “Count the cost.” Know what the journey or decision that you are about to make is worth it. Make sure that you have the commitment, resources and passion to finish what you started. It’s always good to do that before the journey and not during. You see every journey has its hard bits. It’s “are we there yet?” bits. And its in those times that we need to know that we have prepared properly for the journey.

Possibly my favourite song says it like this:

I've been watching the skies
They've been turning blood red
Not a doubt in my mind anymore
There's a storm up ahead

Hello hurricane, you're not enough
Hello hurricane, you can't silence my love
I've got doors and windows boarded up
All your dead end fury is not enough
You can't silence my love, my love

Every thing I have I count as loss
Everything I have is stripped away
Before I started building I counted up these costs
There's nothing left for you to take away

Lyrics by Jon Foreman of Switchfoot