In the middle of the dais was a great gilded chair. Upon it sat a man so bent with age that he seemed almost a dwarf; but his white hair was long and thick and fell in great braids from beneath a thin golden circlet set on his brow.... His beard was laid like snow upon his knees; but his eyes still burned with a bright light glinting as he gazed at the strangers.
At length Gandalf spoke. "Hail, Théoden son of Thengel! I have returned."
The old man rose to his feet, leaning heavily on a short black staff ... "I greet you ..." he said, "but truth to tell your welcome is doubtful here, Master Gandalf. You have ever been a herald of woe.... Why should I welcome you, Gandalf Stormcrow? Tell me that." Slowly he sat down again in his chair.
"You speak justly, lord," said a pale man sitting upon the steps of the dais. "Even now we learn from Gondor that the Dark Lord is stirring in the East. Such is the hour in which this wanderer chooses to return. Why indeed should we welcome you, Master Stormcrow? Láthspell I name you—Ill-News..." He laughed grimly, as he lifted his heavy lids for a moment and gazed on the strangers with dark eyes.
Then suddenly [Gandalf] changed. Casting his tattered cloak aside ... he spoke in a clear cold voice.... "Grima son of Gálmod, a witless worm you have become. Therefore be silent, and keep your forked tongue between your teeth.
He raised his staff. There was a roll of thunder ... the fire faded to sullen embers. There was a flash as if lightning had cloven the roof. Then all was silent. [Grima] Wormtongue sprawled on his face.
"Now Théoden son of Thengel, will you hearken to me?" said Gandalf. "Do you ask for help?" He lifted his staff and pointed to a high window. There the darkness seemed to clear, and through the opening could be seen, high and far, a patch of shining sky. "Not all is dark. Take courage, Lord of the Mark.... I bid you come out before your doors and look abroad. Too long have you sat in shadows and trusted to twisted tales and crooked promptings."
Slowly Théoden left his chair. A faint light grew in the hall again.... With faltering steps the old man came down from the dais and paced softly through the hall. Wormtongue remained lying on the floor.... The doors rolled back and a keen air came whistling in.
"Now, lord," said Gandalf, "look out upon your land! Breathe the free air again!"
"It is not so dark here," said Théoden."
"No," said Gandalf, "Nor does age lie so heavily on your shoulders as some would have you think. Cast aside your prop!"
"Dark have been my dreams of late," [Théoden] said, "but I feel as one new-awakened."
― From The Two Towers (1954) Chapter VI (excerpts), by J.R.R. Tolkien
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A wise old preacher once said, "We never grasp just how far Man has fallen till we start the journey back."
So, as we begin this devotional ascent from the pits of endless stress into the glorious freedom of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, it is essential that we understand what brought on the stress in the first place and how to avoid sliding right back into that gloomy place so we have to repeat the journey over and over again.
When Adam and Eve had their Great Fall, they—and all of us with them—tumbled into a chasm of Sin so unfathomably deep and hopeless that only our Lord Jesus could lift us out. His nail-scarred hands "brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light," hallelujah! (I Peter 2:9) If we've put our trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and made a commitment to follow Him, then we are SAVED. No question about it.
And yet, bringing us out of Sin and darkness does not altogether get the darkness OUT OF US. It's a process—a "journey back." In Paul's words, "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6) Praise God, He WILL complete it because He is FAITHFUL. He will keep peeling off layers of our dark, sinful nature on a daily basis until the day we stand before Him. Let us then be educated from the pages of Scripture about the journey, feed on His faithfulness—that is, trust Him to get us there—and keep walking "in the light as He is in the light" to experience His cleansing grace every step of the way. (I John 1:7)
Back to King Théoden. When he rose from his throne in the presence of Gandalf and his companions, Tolkien tells us, "The strangers saw that, bent though he was, he was still tall and must in youth have been high and proud indeed." Yet, here he stood, a miserable shell of a man, tormented with dark dreams and crushed by despair. As we learn from the narrative, this was all due to Théoden's choice of a counselor, Grima Wormtongue, who drained the king of all hope and replaced it with melancholy, dysphoria, despair, and (very nearly) death.
When I was six, my father was a pastor and missionary, and our family spent a year or two traversing the U.S. "Bible Belt" states visiting dozens of churches. Those dear people, who were hospitable to a fault, would often lodge us in a "parsonage"—typically a small building detached from the church, which stood unoccupied except for rare occasions when someone like us needed a place to stay. You would expect such lodgings to be musty and need a bit of airing out. But the real fun was always after sundown. That's when you'd walk into the kitchen and flip on the light. Sure enough, fifty or more cockroaches, of all sizes and breeds, would simultaneously emit a startled little shriek and vanish into the nearest crevice in the floor or baseboard. (OK, I may have just imagined the shriek.)
Obviously, there don't nobody invite roaches into their home! But in southern latitudes, if your home is devoid of light and life for any length of time, one or two of these critters is sure to find a way in. They consume any bits of food you may have around, raise a family, and generally pollute the place with their unholy conduct.
Our spiritual house is no different. "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (I Corinthians 3:16) But, when we neglect to "walk in the light as He is in the light," we evict the Holy Spirit from certain rooms of our temple—telling Him, "Sorry, this one's off limits. I can manage this part of my life quite nicely, thank You!" And what follows should come as no surprise. Grima Wormtongue and his tribe of roaches show up in that dark place. They eat away at our faith and replace it with fearful thoughts, dark dreams, stress, fear, anxiety, and DESPAIR.
John 3:19-21 tells us, "...Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
See, when it comes to mapping and navigating life's journey, if it's not "done in God," then it's self-reliance. Self-reliance begets poor choices. Which beget wickedness. Which begets self-absorption and bondage to vice. Which begets fretting, faithlessness, stress, worry, and ultimately DESPAIR.
But when we ask the Holy Spirit, "Please, throw open every sealed room in this temple and flood it with Your holy presence and light!" the result is that we walk in His light and our deeds are "done in God." And God-reliance ("feeding on His faithfulness") begets wise choices. Which begets righteousness. Which leads to Christ-centeredness and a desire to serve the God we love. Which begets peace, faith, trust, and ultimately RADIANT JOY!
"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise You forever, because You have done it; and in the presence of Your saints I will wait on Your name, for it is good." (Psalms 52:8-9)
"Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy..." (Isaiah 60:1-3,5a)
When Gandalf arrived in Théoden's palace (though unwelcome at first due to the "roaches"), he brought light that dissipated all stress and despair, replacing it with hope and RADIANT JOY.
Let us intentionally carve out time on a weekly—if possible, a DAILY—basis to spend in His presence soaking in the light of His Word, in prayer, and listening for His still, small voice to guide and inform our journey. Because only in His presence do we find the "path of life," which leads to "fulness of joy." (Psalms 16:11)