3 Things I Learned from Lord of the Rings

Warning: The following article may contain spoilers. If you have not read or watched Lord of the Rings, read at your own risk.

Lord of the Rings is one of my favorite books (and movies). It is such a wonderful story of good triumphing over evil, and let's face it, there's some pretty epic characters thrown in there too!

Tolkien claimed that he put no symbolism whatsoever in his books, but that hasn't kept people from trying to come up with some allegorical meaning for his story. Symbolism or not, there are still some pretty important lessons we can draw from this amazing trilogy.

1. Loyal friendship is beautiful.
Frodo and Sam's story is such a beautiful picture of complete loyalty to one another. Sam ends up carrying Frodo most of the way up Mount Doom at the end; if that isn't loyalty, I don't know what is!

This kind of friendship is so scarce in real life, it seems. But when you find that friend who seems worth it, hang on to them, because there are few things more beautiful than the deep friendship that Frodo and Sam had.

2. Even the underdog can do great things.
In the course of the story, Merry and Pippin go from being the comic relief characters, not really capable of anything heroic, to helping kill the witch-king (Merry) and saving Faramir from his father's suicidal plans (Pippin).

God has a plan for even the one who seems the least likely to do great things, and we just have to trust that He knows what He is doing.

3. It will sometimes be a long and hard journey, but good will always triumph over evil in the end.
We have to hang onto this truth in our Christian walk: no matter how hard the journey, it will always come to an end. God will ultimately triumph over Satan and the struggle will be over.


What do you think? Do you like Lord of the Rings and the lessons I've drawn from it? Are there any you would add? Are there other books/movies you would like to see me do this with? Tell me in the comments below!