If you’ve been following along with my blogs, then you know I’ve referenced brokenness in my life a number of times. It is a common theme in all of our lives at one point or another. If you know me personally, then you know I am an avid fan of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. So much so that, many days of my childhood consisted of my friends and I beating each other with sticks in the name of Gondor. Recently, I found the time to actually rewatch all three of these movies, and to see things that work as metaphors and analogies for experiences in my life. While there are a few throughout the series, I am going to focus on a singular one in this blog: Andúril – the reforged sword of the KING.
For those of you who aren’t quite as in love with the trilogy as I am, the sword is originally named Narsil but after it has been reforged it is renamed Andúril. See, Narsil was once used to win victory over the great evil of the time, and (**spoiler alert**) once reforged as Andúril it is used against the returned great evil to again win victory. Now that may sound like an extremely quick book/movie review, but it hit deeper than entertainment for me this time around. I started to compare my life to the life of this sword. This sword of great power (make no mistake friends, God has made us very powerful) is broken and forgotten. Then, it is remade whole..better than it formerly was ten times over. For me that’s a pretty easy description of my walk with Christ over the last year. There was a time where my walk felt shattered and abandoned. Then, at my lowest point, Jesus met me there. He began to remake me into a stronger, more powerful me than anything I had previously known. He started with baby steps of daily prayer, bible studies, and subtle words. Then He made a way for me to pursue Him and His Kingdom around the world during this year of my life while surrounded by community and brothers and sisters who have been remade as well. I can say without a doubt that I am stronger in my faith than ever right now, but I know I’m still in the forge. Now I’m not super knowledgeable about forgery, but I do know it comes with a lot of sparks, heat, and hammering. My own remaking is a process like the forgery of a sword and is not always smooth. However, the brokenness that once held claim over me and made me feel useless has now been used to remake something that is stronger for it. That which was broken has been remade… and just as the great evil fears the remade sword, the enemy in our lives fears our KING’S remade creations.
Please forgive my nerdiness,
Bowen
