Joyful Ruins

In most films that have a battle, it’s usually depicted as good vs. evil, though sometimes we see the grey in war. In Lord of the Rings though, it truly is good vs. evil, no question about it.

In Return of the King, there’s a scene where the orcs are marching upon Minas Tirith, the steward of Gondor shouting for the men to abandon their post. Heads of their dead comrades are being thrown at them. Screams, death, horror, pain. What hope can there be?

Yet Gandalf tells them not to abandon their posts, he tells them to keep fighting.

It made me think about the battle we are fighting every day. As followers of Christ, we are truly living in a fallen world, one in which evil runs rampant. The only reason it doesn’t completely win, is because God loves us so much and He has already saved the world from sin.

Yet, we are still at war. We are meant to bring light, love, goodness into the world. We are fighting a battle against evil with our words, actions, thoughts, with anything and everything pure, right, just, and good. It helps me to think this way, because when you are fighting a real battle, you don’t just give up when hope seems lost. You can’t.  If you did, you’d be giving up on what you’re fighting for. No. You keep fighting because even if you die, you did your best and died fighting for good. Therefore, we can’t give up living or being good, loving when things are “tough”. We keep fighting even without seeing the light or hope in the battle.