Ithilien. March 9, Shire Year, 1419. – Skirting the mountains of Mordor, Frodo, Sam and Gollum, have turned away from the Black Gates at Morannon to travel south to the Stairs of Cirith Ungol. As they travel south, they come at last to a grove of trees, enter in,
and found that they stood in a great roofless ring, open in the middle to the sombre sky; and the spaces between their immense boles were like the great dark arches of some ruined hall. In the very centre four ways met. Behind them lay the road to the Morannon; before them it ran out again upon its long journey south; to their right the road from old Osgiliath came climbing up, and crossing, passed out eastward into darkness: the fourth way, the road they were to take.”
The fourth way is the way to the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, a little-used path into Mordor, the stronghold of Sauron the Great. There must have been in Frodo some thought of or temptation to continuing south and away from Mordor or to turning west and make for Minas Tirith where perhaps Gandalf, Aragorn, and others of their company might be found. Going back north to the Black Gate was unthinkable. But Frodo chose to travel the road that held the least hope of accomplishing his mission: he chose the road to the east, past Minas Morgul, to the Stairs of Cirith Ungol, and ultimately to Mordor and Mt. Doom.
Frodo’s choice is a stark example of the importance of decisions that we all make everyday. Although Frodo had decided at Rivendell to take the burden of the One Ring and committed to destroy it in the fires of Mt. Doom, he was still plagued with decisions to be made along the way: whom to trust, which way to go, when to strike, and when to be merciful.
At his blog, Jollyblogger has posted a concise sentence about self-absorption, Just a Random Thought. As I said in my comment there, it is quite heuristic and touches the fringe of the broad cloth of decision-making.
It is how I think in moments of introspection – about me, what I want and what I need – that is determinative. When that kind of self-reflective thinking comes into my head, I too am standing at a crossroads: follow the Spirit or follow the flesh; follow my own desires or reaffirm the decision I made long ago when I submitted to the Lordship of my Savior, Jesus Christ.
If I’m thinking about all that Christ has done in my life, recognizing my wants as manifestations of the flesh, and learning to be content with God meeting my basic needs – if I think along those lines, I’m OK. It’s when I leave the Holy Spirit out of my thinking – i.e., I don’t allow Him to correct and re-direct my thoughts – that I get into a grey or blue mood. I ignore He whom I have chosen as my Lord and run blindly down the wrong path, the path the holds forth the empty promise of contentment and peace.
At least for me, it’s the perspectival path I choose to take that makes all the difference. Will I walk after the Spirit or after the flesh? Will I have a temporal or eternal perspective?
It’s another crossroad every day, every hour, and sometimes many times an hour. In almost every situation, there is a clear choice about which path I need to follow and which I want to follow. I comes down to whether or not I honor my commitment to Christ made 30+ years ago.
Namárië.
