Fellow Travelers ~ The Long Haul

Greetings Dear Reader,

In The Hobbit, as Thorin, Bilbo, and company are about to enter Mirkwood, Gandalf warns them, ” Stick to the forest-track, keep your spirits up, hope for the best, and with a tremendous slice of luck you may come out one day and see the Long Marshes lying below you, and beyond them, high in the East, the Lonely Mountain where dear old Smaug lives, though I hope he is not expecting you.”

He warns them not to stray from the path.  He explains that finding it once left is not an easy task.  The path was the safe way through though.  It was the way in and the way out.  Then the path became their reality and they forgot its goodness.  “But they had to go on and on, long after they were sick for the sight of the sun and of the sky, and longed for the feel of wind on their faces. There was no movement of air down under the forest-roof, and it was everlastingly still and dark and stuffy.”

Sometimes the road can seem long and we become weary.  We become tempted to try shortcuts, take a different path, or go it alone.  These things do not work.  The path is the path. It is narrow and hard to find again once we leave it.  Even when things are dank, dark, or suffocating the path is the place to be. 

As fellow travelers we are meant to be on the path.  We are designed to support and care for each other.  We are to keep each other on the path through love and encouragement.  The group of fellow travelers in The Hobbit failed to care for each other and got lost first in their own complaints and wants.  They were lost long in their minds before they ever set foot off the path.  They forgot that the path was the safest way through when they needed it most.  They forgot to keep each other on it.

The long road home will have place where we do not walk in the sun.  It will be Mirkwood at times.  We will feel like we are suffocating under the oppressive environment.  The truth is that the only way out is through.  The fellow travelers we have need encouragement to stay the path.  We do too.

It is in the caring for each other when the path is dark and dank that we realize the great value of fellow travelers.  We must not reject them when they come along side us and remind us that we need to stay the path.  We must not disregard them when they warn us not to dwell on our wants over keeping to the course.  We must encourage them when they need it as well.

I am sure that the dismal parts of the journey have much to teach me.  I am tempted to find a shortcut or blaze a new path altogether.  I have tried that before and failed. It is hardest when I get my eyes off of the journey, the purpose and only see the darkness and feel the humidity.  The long haul is weary but the only way out is through. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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