Three Life Lessons from Frodo

Written by

Mat

in

I just finished watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy again.  No matter how many times I’ve watched them I’m always surprised at how profound Tolkien was at his understanding of the human condition, our frailties and our strengths.

Lessons I learned this time. (and probably many times before)

1.  Life is about choices.  Those we make and those we have thrust upon us.

2.  Life is about personal sacrifices.  Life is bigger than us and requires that we think of the other people in our life first.

3.  Life is about following your calling.  We all have one.  Have you found yours?  Are you living it?

Comments

3 responses to “Three Life Lessons from Frodo”

  1. Jack Gilstrap Avatar
    Jack Gilstrap

    Hey, Mat! Wonderful observations on this wonderful epic. I love it, too, in both its book and film versions. It’s interesting how your points apply differently to many different characters in the story; yet we could probably pick a "poster child" character for each point, eh? But then, the point isn’t just to think about these ideas in middle earth reality, right, but to apply them to ourselves?

  2. Mat Maynor Avatar
    Mat Maynor

    You’re correct. They so appropriately apply to actual life simply not to the characters in the story. For me, Tolkien ranks up there with Shakespeare not only for his ability to understand the human condition, but to communicate it through story in a way that we can identify with a myriad of the characters in the story all at the same time.

  3. Jack Gilstrap Avatar
    Jack Gilstrap

    I agree with you, and I have a great appreciation for Shakespeare. It is a pity that Tolkien’s literary output was so limited. But what he gave us is simply huge. Did you know that a decade ago when Christianity Today published a list of the top 100 most important Christian books of the 20th century, LOTR was in the top ten. I think it was #2. We thought that was so cool, since it is not a book that most people would automatically see as a Christian book, per se.

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