“Other evils there are that may come; for Sauron is himself but a servant or emissary. Yet it is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.”
In the past several months, I have become painfully aware of the injustice in the world. Slavery and trafficking are common in every nation in the world. It is both legal and socially acceptable to kill a fully-formed baby. People in other countries are consistently arrested and tortured because of their faith. Poverty and starvation continue to kill millions of people every year. The world’s consumerism is ravaging the planet’s natural resources as landfills continue to grow.
Where is a person to start? Sometimes I look at all the evils of the world and feel despair. This quote echoes what the wise people in my life have been telling me: You can’t mend the evils of the world. You can only affect the scope you have been given, do your best, and trust that the rest will work out.
Defining the scope is where the problem continues. Some people are called to be hobbits, dealing with their neighbors and growing healthy potatoes. Some are called to be Rangers, defending both strangers and friends from threats that show up all over Middle-earth. Most of us are a mix. It’s important to carefully consider where we are at any point in our lives, to discern when we should be fighting black riders and when we should be weeding our gardens.
These words, spoken by Gandalf, echo the wisdom he gave Frodo near the beginning of the first book: All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
~Lisa Shafter
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