The Fellowship That Carries Us Forward

In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, there is a moment near the end of Frodo's journey up Mount Doom that every pastor should know. Frodo collapses. The Ring has become too heavy, the burden too great. He cannot take another step. And Samwise Gamgee, his faithful companion, looks at him and says, "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you." Then Sam lifts Frodo onto his back and climbs.

That scene devastates me every time, because it captures something the church so often forgets. Community was never meant to be a circle of people standing at a distance saying, "I'll pray for you." Real community — the kind Paul describes in Galatians 6:2 when he says, "Bear one another's burdens" — is the kind that gets underneath someone and carries them up the mountain.

Sam couldn't destroy the Ring for Frodo. He couldn't remove the suffering. But he refused to let Frodo face it alone. And that made all the difference.

Some of you are carrying a weight right now that has brought you to your knees. And some of you are standing next to someone who has collapsed and you're wondering what to do. You may not be able to fix their problem. But you can carry them. The body of Christ was designed for exactly this.