“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo. Going out your front 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.”
-Bilbo Baggins

Gandalf shows up to Frodo’s house after discovering that Bilbo’s old ring is actually the Ring of Power. Gandalf breaks the news to Frodo that Frodo must set out. He must leave the Shire so that the Ring may not be found. That it might be placed into the hands of those who would destroy it. After being told this, Frodo packs his bag, grabs his walking stick, and prepares to set out into unknown territory. He has no clue what awaits him. No knowledge of much beyond the Shire. All he has is curiosity, a purpose, and the courage to journey away from all he has known.

Right now, much like myself, you are asking, “Will, what does this have to do with my personal story?” Unlike Frodo, we don’t usually have wizards knocking on our front door calling us into grand adventures. At least, it doesn’t feel like we are called into grand schemes such as this. So, when are we asked to step into the unknown?

A couple of ways come to mind as I think on this question. It is possible that we might be asked to step out when we face the hard decision of whether to follow our dreams or not. We all have passions or deep desires written into the truest core parts of our hearts. I don’t care who you are, they are there. If you can’t find them, then they are buried beneath years of hurt and wounds directed precisely at them.

A step into the unknown could also be found in the journey of the heart. In the commitment of yourself to something that you may be scared to enter into. Or walking into situations that you have no control over. Situations that may hurt immensely, or bring unencumbered joy, if you have the courage to walk into them.

But both of these situations are still not completely right. They are too narrow and don’t encompass the entirety of our lives. And so the question rises again: “What does this have to do with epic stories? The journey of the heart? Following our dreams? This is everyday stuff. Not something of the utmost importance.” So I ask you, in my own way, to step into the unknown. Let’s look at the story that God has set us into.

Allow me to briefly overview the story’s setup. God, in love and beauty, creates our world with us in mind. We sin, and the whole world falls from glory and grace. Sin then enters the world, and we become increasingly more wicked people. And the whole time this is happening, God is planning and preparing for his ultimate move. The most daring invasion we have ever seen on this world. Jesus comes. And here is where I need to slow down.

God in human form comes down with the ultimate idea. The best laid war plan any general could make. He is going to take our sin away from us, bear it himself, and then vanquish it once and for all. So he lets humanity torture him, beat him, and kill him. Jesus then waltzes into hell, commands the release of al his children who have been held there til then, turns right back around and walks out. With a crowd of his brothers and sisters following close behind, Jesus conquers the power of sin.

Now we are in the age of the world after Jesus’ battle. Victory has been won for God, and we now have the option to live with him again. And now, we can outline the story we are in: Do you think that our enemy has given up? Do you think that he has walked away after Jesus won the victory? No. He has not. We are in the middle of a war between the victorious armies of God, and the crumbling, failing kingdom of darkness. There is nothing so desperate or wildly unpredictable as a wounded animal that knows its end is coming. It has nothing left to lose. So we see the Kingdom of Darkness striking with everything it’s got. This is the story we have been born into. We are in the story of God’s redemption of his people. And it is a story of war.

Here is where we step into the unknown. The one that will take us into an epic journey. We are deceived when we look at how most of Christianity is portrayed. It is and epic story. One of tragedy and loss, but also joy and goodness! But I will touch on this point more in later articles.

Where we are right now is a wonderful situation: There is a wizard knocking at our door. Telling us of great evil in the world, and how we are needed to take action. He asks us to pack our things. To prepare ourselves for the long journey, and then to follow him into a much grander world then we have ever known.

So… Do we take the step? Do we trust that this is all true? Do we believe that God has asked us into this kind of a story, and change the way that we look at the world and our place in it? If we say no, then we choose the mundane. We choose to stay in the Shire where its safe and predictable. Friends, that is not what we are made for. We are made for this journey! Why would we be offered this wonderful invitation if it was not our place to take it? It is offered to us for us! We are the only ones who can handle our particular burdens. No one but Frodo can carry the One Ring to Mount Doom. No one but you can live your epic story.

So, if we say yes… If we pack our things and leave what we have known; then we take that step into a much larger world. Into a great war. And that brings us to the next stage of our story: we have a battle to fight.

Next Article: A Sword to Wield