Fairy Tales and their potency...

Frodo: "I wish none of this had happened." 

 

Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."

I got out my Lord of the Ring Trilogy to watch with my kids this week.  Epic tales of adventure and far off lands and battlefields bled courageously and romance of the purest kind and sacrificial heroes with good and evil always at war.  A story much bigger than ourselves always brings me back to reality.  Reality at it's deepest parts.  Not the noonday demons of impatience, discouragement and despair that try to ensnare as I am looking only at what’s before me.  But a picture, a story, a calling that goes beyond my present circumstances and ignites a heart to spur on.  To fight and believe and suffer well.  To traverse the terrain of hostile domains in the face of peril for a greater purpose beating wildly in the heart.  And it resonates loud.  

I want the story.  I want a life that means something, that has purpose.  And I think I’ve always thought that if I fill my head with enough information from books and other sources, I could get there.  And then when I have the information in my head, it is dead.  I cannot transform myself.  I mean, I might be able to will it for a day or two, but then I’m back to my old ways by default.  It seems forced, contrived, empty.  And I cannot stand a disingenuous existence.  And then I feel defeated, hopeless, helpless, because I can’t make it happen.  I can’t make super mom come flying out of her nest.  And I can’t turn on the wind that blows sexy wife while Suzie homemaker is busy in the kitchen and the maid is doing the laundry and mamacita is helping with homework, bandaging wounds, and breaking up fights.  But here is where the magic comes.  The real magic.  A Savior has come to so graciously intervene.  One with ultimate power.  This power that can shape, morph, renew, and restore.  And He’s been calling me.  Into His adventure, into a Romance, into His story. 

How do I answer such a call?  One that seems so lofty and impossible.  Just like Moses did at the burning bush.  “Please Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”  Arguing with God that He cannot do what the Lord is calling him to do.  I’ve done that.  To which God responds “Who has made man’s mouth?  Who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind?  Is it not I, the Lord?  Now then go, and I, even I, will be with your mouth, and teach you what you are to say” Exodus 4:10-11.  And so God equips him.  In a mighty way.  And he delivers a nation.  But not without great sorrow and suffering.  And along the way the Lord transforms Moses.  Redeeming him and carrying him through.  I want that.

“God knows that soldiers can only be made in battle and are not developed in times of peace.  We may be able to grow the raw materials of which soldiers are made, but turning them into true warriors requires the education brought about by the smell of gunpowder and by fighting in the midst of flying bullets and exploding bombs, not by living through peaceful times.  Is the Lord uncovering your gifts and causing them to grow?  Is He developing in you the qualities of a soldier by shoving you into the heat of the battle?  Should you not then use every gift and weapon He has given you to become a conqueror?”  Charles H. Spurgeon

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
    along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
    and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
    I will not forsake them."  Isaiah 42:16

I was trying to think of books to send Rick that I thought would be good for him and encourage him.  I have many books that I love with lots of good information.  Great information.  Explanations, definitions, theological examinations, doctrinal studies.  And although I think these are good books, I did not think that they would rouse him.  And this was one of the first times in a long time that I took a moment to think not about what I think Rick needs by my own standards, but what would bring him life.  What makes his heartbeat.  How God wired him.  It is stories.  He loves people and their stories and digging into their hearts.  He thrives in developing relationships.  And so I started to think of the books I have read that are good stories.  Larger than life real stories that emulate the themes of fairy tales.  A noble cause.  Sacrifice. Faith.  Salvation. Redemption.    Where we see that it can be done.  We see the work in progress.  We see it from the beginning to the end and we see that we have a choice.  

The first one I sent him was the autobiography of George Muller.  A story of crazy wild faith and the provision of God.  He liked it.  After reading it I could see a change in his demeanor.  From anxious to calm.  Trusting and praying and letting go of the stronghold of frustration from his situation.  Grace moving, changing, healing and saving.

Rick is adjusting well to life on the inside.  He has made friends, thrown birthday parties, shaved his head for Halloween to look more the part, written me a sweet letter, commissioned jail art of our family’s names, watched all the episodes of Sylvester and Tweedy (because that’s what the tough guys like to watch), bartered coffee for necessities, plays lots of chess and cards, and has become an advocate for these souls who do not have the means or resources to communicate with the outside.   Rick being Rick.  And a new sweet soft calm is emerging.  Like a budding flower opening for the fresh spring rains.  Drinking deep of ancient waters.  Accepting the call to the quest.  And taking up his cross of suffering.  Without complaining.  Without bitterness.  And with joy set before him.  Because there is a much bigger story.  A better one.  One that the Author will take this man and thru his suffering and thru his fight for joy, He will bring Glory to the Himself.  And that’s the story I want.  Where the true Hero is the one who saved me and is still saving me to himself.  And restoring a marriage and a mommy and a servant to my precious Savior.  And then Glory.  A passion for Glory.  May we fight the good fight till the end.  Bringing glory to the One who calls us and transforms us.  Who arms us with hope and truth and grace and gives us the strength to fight the dragons and demons.  His glory is our joy, our battle cry, our victory.