Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Tokens from Tolkien

As you can see from the title of my blog, I've found some Tolkien quotes that I like. Just the other day, I heard this one:

"Not all who wander are lost."


Isn't that the truth? In today's day and age, with technology, globalization, and fluidity a part of everyday life, feeling lost is pretty common. Wandering goes far beyond moving physical location. It takes form academically, spiritually, emotionally, virtually, and relationally. We flit from Facebook profiles to Flikr albums, to Pinterest boards, to jobs, to tweets, to friendships, to degrees. Well, you get the point!



But even in doing all of that (which I do on a daily basis for my work), we can keep our compass pointing north. Exploring and pushing boundaries is healthy. I've been blessed to be able to travel, experience different educational environments, live in different places, and navigate the wild west of digital media over the past years. It may have been a circuitous journey at times, and I may not have had a map, but I sure grew from the journey and discovered that remaining true to myself and who God made me to be allowed me to continue northward. aka, I wasn't lost. 


Which leads me to another Tolkien quote:


“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.” 


I have always been a firm believer in dreams. Pursuing what you know to be right, and who you know yourself to be is so critical. After all, God created us in his image, to be fulfilled through the new life that Christ offers us when we believe in him. This goes so much farther than just acknowledging a heavenward path. It seeps into us, allowing us to discover the purpose and vision God has for our lives. 


Yes, realities press in on us from all directions. And yes, they can be discouraging, daunting, and even dire at times. But  if we have a dream in mind, and the confidence in knowing that it is sound and right, then the strength we have to go after it will always be stronger than the momentary trials that stand in our way.


So in a nutshell, I'd like to stake my claim in this fashion: I am a wandering dreamer, but I am not lost and I am not unrealistic. I am just more influenced by the power of Christ and the hope of finding myself in him and his work, which always triumphs.


Thanks for the inspiring words, Tolkien. I think we can all feel them resonate in our lives and look to them as a good reminder when our map is a little unclear or our dreams a little far off.

1 comment:

  1. You do know, I hope, that Tolkien wrote only one of the quotations you list here. The only thing that he actually wrote is ‘Not all those who wander are lost’ — the other two quotations are not by Tolkien (‘little by little one travels far’ is a translation of a Spanish proverb, and the single dream nonsense is part of the promotional copy made up for the 1978 Bakshi film (you could say that that, at least, is about Tolkien, but it is definitely not by Tolkien).

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