All We Have to Decide

In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, there is a quiet moment deep in the Mines of Moria that has stopped countless viewers in their tracks. Frodo, exhausted and afraid, turns to Gandalf and whispers, "I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened." Every honest soul has prayed some version of that prayer. We look at the weight we carry — the diagnosis, the difficult marriage, the calling that costs more than we expected — and we wish for a different life.

But Gandalf does not offer Frodo an escape. He offers him something far greater. "So do all who live to see such times," the wizard says gently. "But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

That is the voice of the Almighty echoing through fiction. Jeremiah 29:11 tells us God has plans for us — plans for a hope and a future. But notice what God does not promise: a life free from burden. Purpose is not the absence of hardship. Purpose is the holy conviction that your hardship has a destination.

Frodo did not choose the Ring. But he chose to carry it. And that choice made all the difference.

You may not have chosen your circumstances, but the Most High is asking: what will you do with the time that is given you?