Sin is a deadly business

When sadness takes over my soul one of the first things that I turn to is The Lord of the Rings.  Last night and tonight I have watched Bilbo, Gandalf, Frodo, Sam and company as they battle Sauron, and try to stop the onslaught of evil in Middle Earth.  It is a great reminder that we also are in a battle as well.  When the darkness seems to want to swallow me or those that I love, I turn to Tolkien and remember, oh yeah, we are not home yet and the battle is fierce.  

 Watching Bilbo try to equip Frodo for the next leg of his journey is particularly insightful. Bilbo is giving Frodo his sword Sting, and a shirt made of Mithral.  Frodo has looked up to Bilbo's strength all of his life.  He feels inadequate to carry on the mantle that Bilbo wore for longer than he has been alive.  In his eyes you can see that he is touched, overwhelmed and excited with the gifts that Bilbo is passing on to him.  Bilbo encourages him to try on the shirt of Mithral that in a future battle will save his life.  Frodo goes to put it on, and Bilbo catches a glimpse of the ring that he once possessed.  He asks if he could just touch it one more time.  Frodo knowing the power of the ring backs away and won't give Bilbo a chance to even see it.  Bilbo reacts with a face full of violence against the one that he loves most in all the world.  Then he collapses with the weight of it all on the bed and begins to sob telling Frodo, "I wish this had never happened.  I wish the ring had never had to come to you.  I am so sorry, my boy.  It is all my fault."  Oh how many tears I have shed over the reality that this poses to me.  How many times I have cried seeing my sin hit me square in my face wishing that my children did not have to face the same sin as their mother.  When I see the attitudes that I modeled, that I taught by just being me, I weep.  I weep for the depravity that I have passed on.  Yes, I have equipped them with a sword and other things to make their journey safe.  But when I look at the ring and realize the sin that weighs them down, the reality of the sin that also weighs me down, I feel so very sad.  I see my close friends looking at their sin and wishing also that they had not had to pass it down to their offspring as well and the sadness that they feel.  Sometimes it can be overwhelming.  All of us human beings have to face it.  Even our precious ones.  The same ones that we gave birth to, watched as they took their first steps, rode their first two wheeler, go off to school, and have their first date.  They are "precious" to us.  They also must join the battle that is raging.  They must also wield the sword and slay their dragons, without us.  But......thanks be to God who has slayed, conquered, destroyed evil and death for us and our children.  But.......thanks be to God who gave His only Son so that we can face this reality of our sin, and be free!  Yes, free!  He came to set us free.  We cannot take this burden from our own hearts and we cannot take it from our children either.  But......thanks be to God who came to do just that.   In this world we will have tribulation, He promised it, and that tribulation has to do with sin, sometimes our own, sometimes others.  But.....be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.  Christ has overcome the world by His death.  Thanks be to God.  Frodo forgives Bilbo, because he also knows the depth of his own sin and the hold the ring has on him.  Thanks be to God for the Saviour Jesus Christ.