441 | The Time You’ve Been Given

Why Did God Give You THIS Time?

A Lord of the Rings quote made me rethink what Scripture actually says about the time you’ve been given.

A few weeks ago I was sitting at a concert, waiting for it to start. And instead of doing the easy thing — pulling out my phone to scroll while I waited — I’d brought a book.

Apparently I’m now the woman who brings a book to a concert. So there’s that. 😂

It wasn’t The Lord of the Rings. It was Mark Buchanan’s God Walk, the book we’re currently reading inside our Faithful Focus Book Club. And Buchanan referenced the exchange between Frodo and Gandalf that every LOTR fan already knows by heart.

Here’s the setup, for those of us who need it (my kids are the real fans in this house — I mostly just know the cliff notes). Frodo has just realized what the Ring means and what it’s about to cost him. A conflict he never asked for has landed in his lap. And he says:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time.”

Gandalf answers:

“So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I read that line twice.

The time that is given us.

And I couldn’t stop wondering: given by whom and for what?