Jim Ware - Finding God in the Hobbit

F aith is an ongoing adventure, not simply a one-time choice. The Road goes ever on and on, as Bilbo regularly reminded Frodo. Once we hear the knock on the door and step onto the Road, theres no turning back. Life will never be the same again.

A re you ready for the adventure?

The perfect tool for the young adults in your liferead either alone or in group study.

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Bilbo went to sleep with [the dwarves song] in his ears, and it gave him very uncomfortable dreams.

THE HOBBIT, CHAPTER 1,
AN UNEXPECTED PARTY

Snuggled down beneath the bedclothes, staring sleepless into the darkness, Bilbo put forth one last effort to make sense of the absurd events of the past six hours.

Dwarves! he fumed. Dwarvish racket! Dwarvish talk of journeys and dragons and treasures and burglaries! Dwarves on the doorstep and dwarves in the parlor! Dwarves demanding seed-cakes and raspberry tarts with their teanot to mention my best ale! He snorted in disgust. What would his father, the respectable Bungo Baggins, have said? Its a wonder the pantry wasnt left completely bare!

Ah! But then youve been known to hobnob with dwarves before this, cautioned a voice from the other side of his braina voice suspiciously reminiscent of his grandfather, the scandalous Old Took. In fact, youve acquired something of a reputation for associating with outlandish folk of all sorts. Its rumored youve even been seen with elves.

Thats beside the point, protested the practical Baggins part of him. It was thoughtless of Gandalf. Not that I want to appear inhospitable. But an uninvited crowd at tea-time is quite enough to push any hobbit beyond his limits!

Limits? The Took side of him laughed softly. What do you know of limits? How will you ever know if you dont step outside the door and leave your pantry behind?

A breath of wind caught the curtains. Outside the crickets had raised a chorus in the hedge. Was it really a hint of elvish music that Bilbo heard wafting on the breeze? A scent of spring and wakening earth and approaching summer stirred a nameless longing deep within him; and the Took side, seeing its chance, stung him with an unforgiving pang of wanderlust. Bilbo sighed and turned his face to the wall.

Youre right, of course, he muttered miserably. Its what Ive always wanted! But in middle age a hobbit realizes that some dreams just have to remain private.

Private or not, the Took side said, I have a feeling that your dream is about to come true.

Out in the parlor the dwarves had taken up their song again:

Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away, ere break of day,
To find our long-forgotten gold.

Bilbo moaned and drew the covers up over his head.

* * * * *

To sleep! Perchance to dream

Ay, theres the rub indeed. For dreams can shatter restful, comfortable slumber. And the ramifications of a dream come true arent always what you had expected. Hopes and longings nurtured in the secret darkness have a way of taking on a very different shape in the daylight of reality.

Once there was a man who had a dream. For thirty-eight years he lay stretched on a miserable mat beside a miraculous pool, lame, unable to rise, waiting for an angel to stir the water, cherishing a vision of himself leaping and skipping like a boy. It was a vision that seemed unlikely to be realized. But it kept him alive, and he clung to it as a child clings to an empty bottle or a scrap of an old blanket.

Then one day it happened. The dream emerged from the shadows and greeted him with a thumping, hearty Hello! It took him by the hand and searched his face with dark, piercing eyes. Then it said, Do you want to be made well? And, strange as it seems, he found that he could not respond with a simple yes (see John 5:1-8).

This is one of the great paradoxes of the human condition: the debilitating fear that so often raises its head when the thing youve always wanted is suddenly presented to you on a silver platter. When a prospective employer calls back to say, Youre hired, or the girl of your dreams accepts your proposal. Even the boldest among us knows what it is like to shrink before the incarnation of our own most deeply held desires. Its an odd but extremely common experience.