You don’t have to be a warrior to achieve great things.
In J. R. R. Tolkien’s timeless novel, The Lord of the Rings, a young hobbit named Frodo Baggins undertakes a long and perilous journey to bring a powerful weapon in the form of a ring to Mount Doom to destroy it.
Mount Doom is in the territory of Sauron, who is the unrivalled evil force who created the Ring and now seeks to reclaim it. Sauron must not be allowed to get the Ring back—it would mean the destruction of the world Frodo knows and everything in it. The only way to destroy the Ring, however, is to bring it to Sauron’s doorstep and throw it into the fire in which the Ring was forged.
It seems like an impossible task. Frodo is no warrior: he’s a humble hobbit. Why should such a critical responsibility be handed to someone who seems so ill-equipped and unlikely to succeed?
In many ways, it turns out that Frodo is the perfect one to be given this responsibility. Hobbits are largely unambitious, generous and loyal creatures—the very opposite of the power-hungry types who would wield the terrible power of the Ring for their own benefit.
Frodo could never have predicted that such an important and arduous task would become his destiny, but he agrees to it nonetheless. He undertakes the heroic journey to do what others have failed to accomplish: to carry the Ring without becoming corrupted by its power and destroy it.
Find the courage
Luckily, Frodo doesn’t have to make this journey alone. He has a circle of allies to aid him in his quest, the most important of whom is Frodo’s friend Sam. No one can be more loyal to a hobbit than another hobbit, and Sam’s loyalty is unwavering. With his help and that of many others who are brave enough to assist Frodo along the way, Frodo is able to complete the journey and destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.
Frodo succeeds with the help of his friends, but also due to the courage he shows in his willingness to carry the burden of a weapon that has overcome and corrupted everyone who came before him. Frodo is able to possess the Ring without becoming fully possessed by it. This shows his incredible strength of character.
We can apply the lessons of The Lord of the Rings to our own lives. Sometimes challenges and crises appear out of nowhere and they feel insurmountable. We may feel completely inadequate and ill-equipped to live out the destiny life hands us, and we may believe that it should have gone to someone else: someone stronger or smarter.
However, we don’t need to be invincible or exceptional to succeed on the path the Universe sets before us. We simply need to find the courage to claim our destiny as our own and use all of the resilience and resourcefulness we possess to succeed—with a little help from our friends.
image 1 Wolfgang Orthgieß from Pixabay
