My Reflections on LOTR

My Reflections on LOTR
My friend asked me last week what my favorite movie was... and I told her it's the LOTR (The Lord of the Rings) Trilogy. That movie has really impacted me... I have watched it 50,000 times and I could watch it 50,000 times again. Hehehe. Actually, when she asked me about it, I remembered I wrote my review and reflections on the story. I opened my mail box (coz I sent it to friends for encouragement like ages ago) and found a copy. I started reading... and once again, it has encouraged me. I decided to post it here, hoping that as you read... you'd be encouraged as well. Skip my grammatical errors though... or better yet, contact me for corrections. Thanks!

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – Janet’s Review & Reflection
I had the chance of seeing these 3 movies, the part 1 of which was the first movie Peter and I watched two years ago (the second part was the first movie we saw together after we got engaged and the third part was the first movie we saw after we got married). After seeing the first part, I was urged to read the books as I was excited to see how the ring was going to be destroyed. I got a friend of mine from the US to send me the books and to my surprise, I got four of ‘em!!! The other book, entitled The Hobbits, is, I think the introduction of the trilogy, of how Bilbo got the ring & of how Smeagol, who later became Gollum took the ring forcefully from his cousin Deagol. He wanted the ring so much that he killed his cousin.


I love the story. True enough the story revolves around “good wins over evil.” And yet it’s not as simple as that… There’s something deeper, more meaningful. In fact, you could draw out a million themes from the story, e.g. the ring as a symbol of sin; Frodo and Sam - great friendship; team work, etc. I wanna write more on “ team work “ as one of the themes for the Lord of the Rings. The story itself teaches how a team can achieve its mission through working together in unity in spite of the differences.



However, for those of you who haven’t read the books, or even watched the movies, I would like to share with you how the story goes, otherwise, you may skip this part to go straight to my reflection.


Somewhere, some time, extremely long ago the evil prince Sauron forged a golden ring. The ring enabled its bearer to rule, and made him evil, if by chance he was not evil from the beginning. One Human being, Isildür, cut Sauron´s hand in a battle and took his ring. Isildür, who originally was a noble king, of course became intoxicated by his desire for power – so he lost the ring, his gold and his life.

In the course of numerous vicissitudes the ring fell into the hands of a troglodyte, Gollum, who became so possessed by his possession that he withered into a tiny monster, sitting in his cave, patting his ring all day long. One day, several thousand years later, he lost his ring. By accident it fell into the tiny hands of Bilbo the hobbit, a peaceful homunculus with hairy feet and dirty nails. Frodo, Bilbo´s even smaller nephew, of all impossible personalities, finally got the sacred mission of bringing the ring in security. It had became necessary to do so, because by then (i.e. about the end of the 14th Century A.D?) the Sauronic ring had begun to activate itself, attracting the attention of the evil prince (still going strong on his dim mountain) who had begun to mobilize his black, mounted ring-ghosts to track it in order to carry it back to its maker. If they had succeeded in doing so the ring would have enabled him eternally to rule over Middle Earth, the homeland of elves, hobbits, humans, and of all decent creatures.

Frodo is given due briefing by Gandalf, the wizard. Around the tiny hobbit a brotherhood of eight is formed: a couple of exiled human kings, a fierce dwarf, an elf archer and a couple of fellow hobbits. They take off on a long quest in order to throw the ring back into the Crack of Doom from which it was originally forged, because that is the only way to destroy its evil power for good.

However, Sauron´s new proselyte, Sarumon the wizard by now is breeding a new race of evil, dark warriors – the orchs – out of the infernal swamp. With their assistance and by means of Balrog, a giant monster, some huge trolls, and innumerable ugly monsters he tries to frustrate the quest of our small peace corps. The story goes on and on…


Reflections:

After seeing the three movies, I was awed by how each character was able to reach the mission (which I wasn’t able to see while reading the books as I was interpreting the story literally)! I would very much like to relate the Lord of the Rings trilogy to “m work.”


First, let’s get to Gandalf, the wizard. He goes here and there, trying to make friends with every creature. He goes to the Shire to visit his Hobbit friend, Bilbo Baggins, and realizes later that the ring was in his possession and later on turned over to Bilbo’s nephew, Frodo. He believes that Frodo would be the one who would go to Mordor to destroy its power. He then goes to Saruman to tell him about the ring but to his dismay Saruman has joined forces with Sauron, the enemy. The whole movie, it was Gandalf who goes to all the leaders of the different groups of people just to awaken them to join forces against the forthcoming war.


Gandalf represents a “m mobilizer”. It’s like he’s going from church to church just to see the churches joining together to finish the “remaining task”, to reach the Unreached!


Second, Frodo and Sam represent the “frontliners”. In the Bible, as Jesus sent them two by two, this, too, happened in the story. Although at first, Merry and Pippin were with Frodo and Sam, somewhere along the way, they had to let go (unwillingly) of the two and join others to fight in the war. There is so much to learn from this. Frodo and Sam represent Paul and Barnabas, Frodo being Paul and Sam being Barnabas. Frodo was quite a weak person (but bold and courageous) and Sam was there to encourage him. The two had their own role and they didn’t forget that. Along the way, towards the “crack of doom”, nearing the fire to which Frodo is supposed to destroy the ring… Frodo became so weak due to the heavy burden. Sam, always remembering his role as a companion to Frodo didn’t take the ring himself. Instead, he carried Frodo to the gates of fire so Frodo could throw away the ring by himself. I remember Sam when he said: “I can’t carry the ring, Frodo, but I can carry you.”


That, I think was a neat representation of how partners can work together as a team. Each knew their own role, not overstepping each other, not envying of the roles that was given to the other. And yet, both are going towards one goal!


There was one time when Gollum tried to talk Frodo against Sam. Frodo, as weak, tired, and burdened as he was, believed Gollum. He then told Sam to go back home.


This too, can happen to us. When we get so weak, so burdened, so burnt out, instead of trusting and believing our partners, we tend to listen to the lies of the enemy. We tend to get discouraged and become distrustful. But the story doesn’t end here coz Frodo realizes later that it is not Sam, but Gollum who is trying to break them apart, it is Gollum who is trying to deceive them so they would not complete their mission.


Third, here comes Aragorn (the last heir of the line of the kings), Legolas (the elf) and Gimli (the dwarf). These three come from three different races. Legolas and Gimli know so well that Aragorn is the king. They both submit to him. They both listen to his instructions. Legolas and Gimli have different personalities and sometimes they clash. And yet, when it comes to work, they are united, forgetting their differences. The goal is to fight the enemy and not each other!


Wonderful! In a team, there are always different personalities because everyone comes from different backgrounds, different family values, different cultures, etc. Yet, to achieve the team’s goal, one has to forget the differences and focus on the work and not on the other person’s weaknesses and differences. One conversation between Legolas and Gimli hit me the most (this was when they went to Mordor, to the black gate to take away Sauron’s eye from Frodo and Sam). It goes something like this;


Gimli the dwarf: I wouldn’t want to die side by side with an Elf.

Legolas the elf: Then let’s die side by side as friends.


Fourth - the strategy of taking the eye(attention) of Sauron from Frodo and Sam. The team went to the black gate courageously, hoping to stray Sauron’s eyes from looking towards Frodo and Sam. Although they didn’t know where Frodo and Sam were & they didn’t have a report from the two and yet they believed that the two were just there, somewhere, going towards their mission, to destroy the ring. They were too few, being outnumbered but they had courage to go there and call the enemy’s attention away from the two. They had courage. They fought. They hoped. This is like supporters back home… constantly hoping… praying… and interceding for the workers!


Yes indeed. The story is about good winning over evil. And yet in our work, we have to remember that to be able to win the race, it takes unity... submission… acceptance… it takes trust… it takes believing that we are there for a reason, no matter how different we are from the rest. It takes courage amid hopelessness. It takes devotion and commitment that we will never give up until we see hope… until we see light… until we see victory… until we see our efforts are not being wasted… until we see that the remaining task is finished…. Until we see Him glorified by all tongues, all tribes, all nations… Until we see Him Eye to eye!!!


I pray that this reflection of mine would encourage my co-workers to go on with the work that is entrusted to us. God does not see our weaknesses alone, nor does He see our strength alone. He sees beyond that. He sees our hearts, our willingness to obey, and above all, our commitment. Let's continue to run the race!