Maybe this is why The Fellowship of the Ring resonates with so many people. We see ourselves as common and unimpressive, just like the two hobbits Sam and Frodo. We fail to realize that our own courage can only poke through when we confront the unexplored.
Frodo heard the melody line before Sam and brought it to his attention:
Sam: This is it.
Frodo: This is what?
Sam: If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.
Frodo: Come on, Sam. Remember what Bilbo used to say: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”[2]
These two predictable hobbits needed to leave the “comfort of home,” because that comfort was slowly killing them. There’s nothing wrong with home, but if we’re honest, most of us are strangers in our own homes.
We’re homesick for a place we’ve never been.
Home isn’t a bad place, but we often ask too much of it. We hope it answers all our aches. But home is a metaphor for where we’ve been, not a place we’re going. Home can be a prison if it’s a place devoid of growth.
Recently my “builder” Chet Scott made a Deeply profound and Painful point to me. Chet is the founder of an unconventional company called Built to Lead.[3] Although some might try and label Chet a “life coach,” he would beg to differ. Chet’s heart is to build his clients by breaking them down—often through Pain.
During a chat, Chet pointedly observed, “You can’t take the ring and stay at the Shire.”
Ouch!
I wanted to do both simultaneously. I convinced myself safety and risk could be married. I believed comfort and adventure were compatible. Chet disagreed, and loved me enough to call me out. I needed to give up to go up.
This strategy requires confronting all kinds of Deep issues. Like failure, competence, risk, and reward.
The first place we need to travel is Deep inside ourselves—uncharted and untamed. Henry Stanley Haskins accurately observed, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”[4]
We need to feel our own Pain. And we must understand our own story if we hope to help other people find theirs.
So let me put it back on you.
Are you ready to take the ring?
Or do you want to just play it safe and small and stay in the Shire?
