The Bible, J.R.R. Tolkien And The Meaning Of LifeНамуна

Suffering Friends 

We all have friends who have added tremendous value to our lives. In The Lord of the Rings, Sam and Frodo are two friends on a journey to destroy the Ring of power. Though Frodo, the ring bearer is resisting the power of the Ring over him, it is beginning to wreak havoc on him. The weight of the Ring is too burdensome. Sam cannot bear to see his friend crumble under its influence. Although Sam would have loved to carry the ring for Frodo and relieve him of its affliction, it was only for Frodo to bear. Tolkien writes, 

"Frodo groaned; but with a great effort of will he staggered up; and then he fell upon his knees again. He raised his eyes with difficulty to the dark slopes of Mount Doom towering above him, and then pitifully he began to crawl forward on his hands.

Sam looked at him and wept in his heart, but no tears came to his dry and stinging eyes. “I said I’d carry him, if it broke my back,” he muttered, “and I will!”

“Come, Mr. Frodo!” he cried. “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well. So up you get! Come on, Mr. Frodo dear! Sam will give you a ride. Just tell him where to go, and he’ll go.”

A good friend might not be able to take away the pain but he offers you company and a back to fall on. In John 15:15, Jesus calls us his friends. In our moments of suffering Jesus offers us companionship. Like a true friend, he accompanies us. Jesus does not accompany us from a position of comfort and no pain rather he has suffered immensely too. But he has overcome it and offers us that same hope (II Corinthians 4:8-14). As Samwise Gamgee said, ‘where there is life, there is hope’- Jesus’ resurrection shows us that there is more to life and therefore there is hope!

A walk that changed Lewis’ life

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were good friends. They exchanged ideas, discussed philosophy and literature and critiqued each other’s books and opinions. Lewis was an atheist. Tolkien was a devout Christian. Yet their friendship blossomed. They both loved Myths and believed it to be a tool to communicate a culture's deepest truths. Lewis was slowly beginning to accept God’s existence but was not ready to accept Christ. Things changed one evening, Lewis writes, “I have just passed on from believing in God to definitely believing in Christ, in Christianity… my long night talk with Dyson and Tolkien had a great deal to do with it.” That walk has impacted Christianity immensely today with the books of C.S. Lewis.