Bilbo, Books, and Biblical Counseling
Although I had a truly wonderful fourth-grade teacher who introduced me to Narnia (thank you, Mrs. Bounds!), and even though I was a very bookish child, I somehow reached adulthood without knowing J. R. R. Tolkien’s name or literary legacy. That means Peter Jackson made the introduction, and although it was late, it was very welcome.
At the time, I was spending long hours in a rocking chair, caring for a nursing infant with reflux and sleep issues. So it was then, in my twenties, that I checked out The Hobbit from the library and read it, followed quickly by the Lord of the Rings volumes. That beautiful baby turns twenty-five this year, and I owe her thanks for giving me an opportunity to sit still (or rock, as it were) and pore over those books.
Years later, as a forty-something, after more sorrow and tragedy than I will detail, I was numb with pain and blind to beauty. A trauma counselor pointed me to fiction as a means of finding my way back into my own story’s meaning. Tolkien’s Middle Earth is one of the places I went. As I have considered a title for a blog series of book recommendations I hope to share, I have been reminded of a conversation from the final volume.
In The Return of the King, Bilbo realizes that the story that had its “beginning” in his own life would not reach resolution until after his death. He suggests Frodo continue the tale in a book of his own. Along these lines, Bilbo asks,
“Have you thought of an ending?”
And Frodo responds,
“Yes, several, and all are dark and unpleasant.”
I confess that while I am unlike Frodo in his world-saving role, I can be a lot like him in my imaginings of dark and unpleasant endings. I am sure that I still shock my cheerful, glass-half-full husband of three years with my regular off-handed comments about what to do with the leftovers in case I die or when to water the flowers I planted in case I have a car accident, am subsecuently convicted of manslaughter, and spend the rest of my life in prison. Doom and gloom are just never far out of my mind.
Bilbo corrects me (and Frodo)…
“Oh, that won't do! Books ought to have good endings.”
And as a Christian, I agree. Our stories are meant for good endings. But the beginnings and middles of our stories can be so hard!
In my own quest, small as it seems, I am on a journey to find the books that point the way to the good endings. Not unlike Frodo and friends, our journeys are fraught with danger, temptation, and evil. Same-sex attraction? Suicidal ideation? Lasting depression? Paralyzing anxiety? Decimating grief? Destructive marriage? Wayward children? Treacherous betrayal? Incest? Intrusive thoughts? Adultery? Abandonment? Divorce? Cancer? Chronic illness?
All dark and unpleasant. But in the series, “Good Endings,” I hope to introduce the books that tackle these subjects and others in truthful, beautiful, and helpful ways so that we can find our way to the good endings in our own stories. And of course, many of these books I plan to describe point either directly or indirectly to a truth that Tolkien hints at through Bilbo’s wistful wonderings.
Bilbo: How would this do: “And they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?"
Frodo: “It will do well, if it ever came to that."
While we live here, our lives are interwoven with light and joy amidst the dark and unpleasant. On our worst days we understand Frodo’s hesitation to believe it can still all work out. On our better days, when we believe there is a God working all things together for the good of those who love him, we often still feel like Bilbo is on to something when he responds,
“Ah! And where will they live? That's what I often wonder.”
Happily ever after? Yes. Together? Please. But where? Ultimately, it’s not here, but There.
Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. Revelation 21:3-4 CSB
Based on his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. Peter 3:13 CSB
In the upcoming periodic series, Good Endings, I hope to talk about the books that help us live as children of the light in a world touched by darkness. I want to read books that help me live this day in light of THAT Day and share them with you along the way.