Today I feel epic. Today is a drink-butterbeer-watch-Harry-Potter-and-Hunger-Games-and-listen-to-the-Lord-of-the-Rings-soundtrack type of day. Today is a pretend you're a hero type of day. Today, is a fighting type day. The most epic of moments happen near the end of a great battle, where everything seems to be spiraling downward. Watch this clip so you understand just how epic fighting really is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrXqQjJPcqQ
That clip right there is from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It is probably one of my favorite clips in the entire movie, and it shows the perfect fight - fear, but confidence, strength and the last thread of light weaving its way through the darkness. Today, I feel like a fighter, but not the type of fighter that rides upon a horse and charges Orcs. The type of fighter that fights for something on a more spiritual level.
Faithfulness was the second to last Fruit of the Spirit I learned about as an itty, bitty girl. I feel bad for my poor Sunday school teachers, whom had to teach me and the rest of my friends what faithfulness was. How exactly, does one explain faithfulness to a group of first or second graders? Mercy me, I do not know how they accomplished it. But, I remember it all the same. Faithfulness was similar to obedience; it was like making a promise and following it through - like if we said we were going to clean our room, we had to remain faithful and actually do it, instead of just saying that we'd do it. Faithfulness was being loyal, like how our dogs always loved us no matter what. At least, that's what I remember it as.
Faithfulness has changed. Or, rather, I have changed and my view of faithfulness too has changed. I no longer see it as just cleaning my room or being like a dog. I see it as being loyal and steadfast and constant. Just the other day my dad and I were having a conversation about faithfulness and we both agreed that faithfulness wasn't just meant for married couples being faithful towards each other. Faithfulness could be applied to God, in every single way.
For example, I went through a really hard time for a couple of years. God wasn't saying much - in fact, He wasn't saying anything. I hated praying to Him, because it felt like praying to a wall. I hated reading my Bible, because it seemed empty and lifeless in my hands. I hated going to youth group, because I felt as if it was blah blah words being thrown at me while I tried to dodge them. Everything felt stupid all of a sudden. But want to know where this story gets really sad? I wasn't being faithful to God. I was too busy being distracted by boys and friends and life, for that matter. I was too busy focusing on those things, that I wasn't being faithful to God. I was cheating on Him...the being that laid down their life for me...and I was cheating on Him. I was cheating on the Creator of the Universe...the Father of my life...the person that would wipe my slate clean after I had stained it red with sin. I was being faithless.
I can't imagine cheating on my husband for another man...so why on earth did I try and cheat on God with satan? Satan is a poop... he's a poop like Sauron is a poop. And you want to know who I am? I am Boromir. I am sinful and selfish and faithless a lot of the time, just like Boromir was. I have a feeling a lot of us are Boromirs. But...do you want to know what the best thing about Boromir is? In the end, Boromir lays down his life to protect the Ring and the other Hobbits. In the end, Boromir realizes his mistake and becomes faithful once again!
I think our stories are a lot like that. I think we are the Boromir's of our lives and God is the Gandalf. I think we spend a lot of our time getting distracted by things of this world, instead of things not of this world. I know for a fact that a lot of us spend our days sinning, and eventually, we realize we need to stop being pushed around, so we fight back. We fight back like Boromir, taking arrows to the chest but still standing strong to protect what we know is right. Eventually we wander back to faithfulness because we are reminded why we are here - for the Lord's purpose. I guess what I'm trying to say is, stop trying to get the Ring (sin), turn around and fight for faithfulness.
But you, the ones who held tight to God, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today. - Deuteronomy 4:4
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