What Am I Holding Onto?

From The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (movie 2002), book series by J.R.R. Tolkien.

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.

Dear Christian, what are you holding onto?  What got you out of bed this morning: obligation, habit, responsibility – or something better – joy, peace, thankful for just being alive?  Somewhere in it there has to be a purpose.  People without a purpose have a hard time getting up in the morning and negotiating difficult days.  So, as I asked before … what are you holding onto?

I have personally struggled with this at different times in my life.  Why get up, again, just to be hated, judged, to lose the efforts trying to succeed, to be beaten down, to make another mistake, to say the wrong thing again?  Why dream a dream that might be impossible to reach?  (Actually, when did I stop dreaming?  It just sort of happens.)  Why endure in a world that rejects what you believe, opposes you when you try to love in accountability, and runs your name and worth into the ground as worthless when you strive to care?  … Why bother?  Why not just float along and not bother anyone with any real desire or effort and no strong opinions or beliefs?

What am I holding onto?

That there's some good in this world ... and it's worth fighting for.

Ah.  Truly there is only one good.  Jesus answered those who said He was good saying, “Why do you call Me good?  No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18)  What am I holding onto?  The only good that exists.  There is only one true living God and He is.  There simply isn’t another thing, aspect, perception, concept, religion, or standard worth holding onto.  Everything, everything, everything, everything, everything, everything else … got it? … Everything else fades away.  Everything else dies.  Everything else perishes. 

Do I need to fight for God?  That statement is laughable.  What can I possibly do?  God doesn’t need me to fight for Him, but He does need me to believe in Him with my whole heart with no doubt - to trust Him completely.  The Bible is full of stories of God waiting to fight for men until men learned to depend upon God and God alone.  God wants to fight for us and does relentlessly.  My fight is to purposely make choices that agree with God’s will.  My fight is to seek Him continuously.  My fight is to know He is is alive and have no doubt.  “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Hold onto God today and fight for Him to dominate your life.  The world, that same world that burns your dreams and purposely seeks your destruction, is defeated.  The king has His hand out ready for you to join Him.  Hold onto Him.