"But that will leave no place for us!" cried Pippin in dismay. "We don't want to be left behind. We want to go with Frodo."
"That is because you do not understand and cannot imagine what lies ahead," said Elrond.
"Neither does Frodo," said Gandalf, unexpectedly supporting Pippin. "Nor do any of us see clearly. It is true that if these hobbits understood the danger, they would not dare to go. But they would still wish to go, or wish that they dared, and be shamed and unhappy. I think, Elrond, that in this matter it would be well to trust rather to their friendship than to great wisdom."
I was reading this part, with the choosing of the Fellowship, to my youngest brother tonight, and thinking about how amazingly true Gandalf's words -- and Elrond's as well -- are. If I knew what lay ahead of me in life, I would be paralyzed with terror, because that is way more than I can handle.
But I love, love, Gandalf's rebuttal. While it is true that we would not dare to act if we knew the danger, it is well to trust to friendship.
The verses of 1 Corinthians 1:27-28 really sum up the core of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series:
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.
The cross is that way. We're that way too. I've been learning that all year, as I watch God work in my crazy, busy, insane life at school and bring what He wants from it -- friendships, academics, growth; as I worked at camp and ran on levels of exhaustion where I wanted to stop in the middle of walking down a hill and cry, when I didn't have words to say to a camper and God still spoke. He uses the weak things.
Which is scary, because that means that He uses people like me.
And things like the incarnation.
And He tells us to trust in His crazy plan, and trust that He knows best, and trust that He calls us friends.
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