The Real Battle
“He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone.”
Our oldest son, Jude, has for many years been working to convince me to read J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings book trilogy. I have certainly never been opposed to it—there is precious little I love more than reading masterfully spun stories—but there is always a long list of reading I want to do and it has been difficult to interject such a long series. But alas, Jude prevailed, and I read The Hobbit this last week. He was correct—I should have done so long before now.
Many of you will be familiar with the story from the blockbuster movies it inspired, but there is one point in the narrative that hit me like a ton of bricks and that I believe is for our community at The Equipped this week. It comes as Bilbo Baggins (the hobbit) is in a dark tunnel descending toward the dragon’s lair:
It was at this point that Bilbo stopped. Going on from there was the bravest thing he ever did. The tremendous things that happened afterward were as nothing compared to it. He fought the real battle in the tunnel alone, before he ever saw the vast danger that lay in wait.
Bilbo was all alone. He had not yet reached the dragon. In fact, the dragon didn’t even know he was there, and Bilbo could have still turned around and fled. But he knew this was the point of no return. He knew this was the last moment in which he could opt out. Perhaps most poignant, he knew this was the last decision that was truly up to him. He could go forward or he could retreat, and he was alone.
What about you? Is there danger ahead? Are you alone in the tunnel of life? Are you grappling with the decision of whether to move forward? Do you feel as though the decision you make in the inner quiet of your being will be more significant than the public ones that will follow? If so, you discern properly, because it is so.
Your decision to choose Jesus over all else will cost you everything (Lk. 14:33). If you are grappling with that decision to truly surrender, it is likely you feel all alone. You feel that way because it is a loving God who knocks at the door of your heart but never forces his way in (Rev. 3:20). He has chosen you, but it is your decision to make. What will it be—forward toward the dragon or back and away from the costly mission ahead?
There is a second component of this, and the best I can articulate it stems from a Word God has repeatedly used to hold me up, and one with which I regularly encourage my kids:
The decisions that require the greatest inner strength are often the ones known only to you.
My friend, the battle in the tunnel of your mind can be a very lonely one. The decisions you make there may never be known to me or anyone else, but even so they are the ones that will define you! They are the ones that will forge the true you. They are the ones that will shape your character and ultimately determine your destiny.
And often, going on is the bravest thing you could possible do!
Simply choose to move forward! Here is where the beautiful intimacy of your God reveals itself, for He is with you even in that dark tunnel of decision where you feel all alone:
“I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
My friend, you only feel alone. You are not actually alone. The decision to choose Jesus—and to truly surrender everything to Him—is in fact a dangerous one. Moving forward is the bravest thing you will ever do. It is also the decision that will thrust your life into the greatest story ever told, and which will ensure your place on the victorious side of God’s conquering of evil and death (Is. 25:8, Hos. 13:14, 1 Cor. 15:54-57).
It is true: The real battle is fought in the tunnel. But as you step forward toward the dragon, you are not alone! And the tremendous things that are yet to come will be as nothing compared to this one because the living God is at your side!