Run the race, fight the good fight, keep the faith.

Last year I introduced Leanne to Lord of the Rings, after begging her to watch at least the first 10 minutes, she agreed to try it and loved it. However it took until this weekend for us to finally watch the last one together. Lord of the Rings is always inspiring and this time round I was struck by the importance of enduring. Whilst reading the books, the bits with Frodo and Sam always slightly bored me as I was always impatient to get back to action and adventure with Aragaon and the rest. Yet it appears to be almost easier to fight a battalion of orcs than to face the corrupting influence of the ring. In life it is easy to forget that we too are in the midst of a battle between good and evil. Evil doesn't helpfully appear as an evil eye or a dalek but instead roars its head in the battle of our minds. Alan Scott, speaking at Summer Madness, spoke of how Paul urged Timothy to 'Remember Jesus'. That seems something which is pretty obvious and something we skip over when we read it. At Knock Methodist in front of the communion rail engraved in the wood are the words "This do in rememberance of me", words that we hear everytime we take communion and yet how quickly we forget. Evil seeks to make us forget about the good, to forget about Jesus. Ephesians talks of how we must put on the armour. Why? In order to stand firm. Apathy creeps in all to quickly until spending time with Jesus simply becomes something we know we're supposed to do and our passion for Him soon fades away. We need to keep on going even when the race is more like the slow of tedious journey of Frodo and Sam than a mad rush of adventure. We need to endure, to remember Jesus.