Frodo and Sam

Okay, everyone who has been following this blog knows how much I love LOTR, right? And J.R.R. Tolkien and his sheer brilliance and everything else and--okay, I'll stop now.  But I stumbled onto this powerful quote that just stopped me dead in my tracks, since I'd forgotten about it:  

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.
[Lord of the Rings Trilogy, by J.R.R. Tolkien, films by Peter Jackson.]

"...there's some good in this world...and it's worth fighting for."  Wow.  Those powerful words are so beautiful and give me chills when I read them, letting their meaning soak into my mind.  Frodo is ready to give up, wishing he could lay down the burden that has been placed upon him--a burden he had no wish to carry in the first place.  Samwise, his trustful friend, is there for him every single step of the way, helping Frodo persevere.  And it's from this simple yet heart-felt character--a lowly gardener at Bag End--that comes such a profound statement, beautiful and potent.  

It's so easy to think of stories in which the character is brave or keeps going when everything gets hard, "It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo.  The ones that really mattered."  Those stories are full of danger, like Sam says, and you worry for the various characters in the book "And sometimes you didn't want to know the end...But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow."  And Sam is reassuring Frodo, hoping beyond hope that their own story will turn out the same way.

And Sam keeps holding, holding to something that he hopes will drive them onward: the "good in this world...that's worth fighting for."  And in the end, they do achieve their goal, through sacrifice and knowing that if they kept going, there would be no hope that they would live to see the Shire again--their home.  

I could go on and on, but I think I will just make a Tolkien Column where I'll periodically post on anything LOTR.  Sound good?  Because this quote just gives me chills and I could literally dissect it from every angle and just marvel at Sam's sincere wisdom for his friend, his burdened companion.  

So what do you hold onto?  As a Christian, do you hold onto Jesus because he's worth fighting for, dying for?  What makes you keep pushing on, sacrificing everything you know for greater gain, other's greater gain?

-Editor-in-cheif