Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
At the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Frodo boards a ships and sails off into the glowing horizon. I cannot envision the scene without hearing Annie Lennox sing,
Lay down
Your sweet and weary head
The night is falling
You have come to journey’s end
Sleep now
Frodo and his fellowship of warriors have destroyed the ring and ended evil’s reign. The war cost them all, but perhaps none as uniquely as Frodo. Not only does his physical strength dwindle, but he has also lost part of his soul.
He fought his battle and won, but he cannot go back to life as it was. He cannot go home to the Shire. Instead an adventure of recovery and restoration awaits him as he steps onto the ship.
As I watch Frodo sail away, I am envious. He has little left to do but rest.
While we may be ready to rest, the nature of life this side of heaven is battle, tension, and struggle.
I would rather sail away. And I try, in small ways. One way, I suppose, is simply the attempt to check off all of my to-do’s for the day. I can achieve euphoria if I can see my daily tasks disappear. Gmail encourages my fantasy- When I clear my inbox, a picture of a woman at the beach appears. The sun shines above her, and she reads on the beach without a care in the world.
The experience is, of course, an illusion. Every day invites us to awaken and face our battles, because struggle is wired into the DNA of every moment in this world. Even the woman on the beach must battle the sun with sunscreen or she will pay later. Every moment extends to us a struggle of some sort.
The real question is this: What are you doing with the struggles that confront you?
To deny or decline our battles is to create a false reality. And our emotional and spiritual health hinges on our willingness and ability to live in reality.
I will always long for smooth sailing; I will never cease strategizing ways to calm the waters in my life. And yet all of this comes from the fantasy that smooth sailing is a reality this side of heaven. It isn’t. And if I am aware of the heart journeys in the people I love most, including myself, there is the need to always stay present to this question: What are my battles today?
What are your battles now? Keep this question present, always.
Let it invite and usher you into reality.
