Dear J.R. Tolkien,
You were a really smart guy.
For all my fellow LOTR nerds out there, and even those who think I'm weird, I wanted to share two Tolkien quotes with you that have actually encouraged me on my walk with Jesus.
Number 1: "Not all who wander are lost". – Finally, someone speaks the truth. For years now I feel like I have been wandering around a spiritual wilderness. Sometimes, it feels like I have found the right path and everything is great for a while until I realize that I have somehow wandered to far and lost my way. I can't figure out where God wants me to be, or what He wants me to pursue and sometimes I feel lost in the enormity of God's love and plan. I look around and it seems like everyone around me has everything put together; their plans, their futures, their relationships, and I'm over in the corner holding onto all my unfulfilled wishes and uncompleted dreams and wondering how I fell so far behind. Honestly, I started to feel ashamed of my life simply because my "success" wasn't measuring up to what I thought it should be. But, slowly, God began to show me that not all who wander are lost. I may stumble every once in a while, I may lose my way and I may feel like I have fallen so far behind that I will never catch up. But its okay to wander, it is okay to try new things and see new places and take my time figuring things out, because my walk with God is not going to look like other people's walks with God and my life is not going to look like another's life because God created certain plans for me, and as long as I follow Jesus, I never really will get lost.
Number 2: "Home is behind you, the World is ahead" – Recently, I have been feeling like God is calling me to take a leap of faith; to step out onto the waves and walk towards Him, and all I would have to do is trust Him. But the boat seems so sturdy, and my life is so comfortable and it seems way too risky to leap because there is a chance I might sink. I have a job, I have a comfy home with all my things around me and it makes me feel safe. And therein, lies the danger. Comfort, I believe, is the chain that a lot of American Christians, including myself, refuse to be released from. We want our things, and our money and our houses and our coffee and we never want to see what God might be calling us to do since we set our comfort on the line. We are uncomfortable with being uncomfortable (imagine that?). But God has not called us to be comfortable, He has not commanded us to "Stay" but instead to "GO!". We leave behind our comforts the moment we decide to follow Jesus. We cannot serve ourselves and our God. Jesus is calling us to leave the boat, to leave our home and follow Him. God does not want to "give" us nice things. He wants us to give up everything for His glory. The world is waiting to hear about Jesus, the lost are waiting to experience Jesus even if they do not know it. And God is calling us away from home and into the world of the lost and broken hearted, and that, amongst all the "uncomfortableness", is where we will experience the most inexpressible joy that comes from serving Jesus and not ourselves.
