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From chapter 1 of
Walking With
Bilbo: A Devotional Adventure Through The Hobbit; © 2005
by Sarah Arthur.
All rights reserved.
Looking for a Few Good Men (or Hobbits)
"I am looking for someone to share in an
adventure that I am arranging, and it’s very difficult to find anyone."
—Gandalf, Chapter One of The Hobbit…
…The issue isn’t whether or not you’ll be
chosen; the issue is when.
For Mr. Bilbo Baggins—who is about to be selected by one of the
most famous captains in all literature—the time is now. Gandalf is in
something of a hurry, and the little hobbit doesn’t appear to be doing
anything important at the moment. If he’d had his wits about him, Bilbo
would’ve disappeared inside his hobbit-hole the minute he saw Gandalf
coming. (Please don’t pick me. PLEASE.) But besides being completely
unaware of Gandalf’s intentions, Bilbo is also—deep down—an adventurous
fellow, though he doesn’t realize it yet.
In fact, there are a great many things he doesn’t realize, as
Gandalf well knows. The wizard tells the dwarves, "There is a lot more in
him than you guess, and a deal more than he has any idea of himself."
Bilbo is being chosen precisely because Gandalf sees something in him that
needs only the "chance to come out," and an adventure will do the job
nicely. Despite Bilbo’s protests—as well as those of the dwarves—he
becomes the "chosen and selected burglar" for the expedition to the Lonely
Mountain.
Chosen and selected. The words have a nice ring, don’t they? They
make us sit up a bit taller, lift our chins a little. Even if, like Bilbo,
we’re not sure what the words mean exactly, we rather like the idea of
being handpicked for a purpose. It’s not simply because we’re susceptible
to flattery, like the dragon, Smaug. Deep down we long to know that we
have value and worth in someone’s eyes, that someone thinks we have a role
to play in the stories of our time.
And Someone does. The Creator of the universe is also the Creator
of every human life, including yours, and all that he does has a purpose.
God made you for a reason and has a plan for your life. He’s calling you
to fulfill a purpose within a story that is larger than you could ever
dream or imagine: an adventure beyond all adventures!
God had been in the business of hand-selecting people for specific
jobs since the beginning of time. He cranked the recruitment process into
high gear when Jesus came on the scene. Picture Peter with his brother
Andrew, mending fishing nets on the shores of an inland sea. Peter doesn’t
have much in the way of education, nor is he what you might consider . . .
um, shall we say, prudent. But Jesus says, "Come, be my disciples"
(Matthew 4:19), and off he goes, Andrew at his side. Drop everything? Now?
Okay. The rest of the twelve disciples have similar responses, and before
long, voilá: you have an organized expedition.
Frankly, if you’re really not interested in adventures, it’s wise
to hide when you see Jesus coming. He has Gandalf-like tendencies that are
really quite alarming. "Follow me," he says. "Take nothing for your
journey. Go the extra mile. Why do you worry about what you will eat or
what you will wear? Seek first God’s kingdom." These are not safe words.
At the very least, they could "make you late for dinner." In fact, they
might mean you don’t get any dinner at all.
But Jesus also says to his disciples, "You didn’t choose me. I
chose you" (John 15:16). This adventure of faith may appear to have a
rather dubious origin and an even more dubious outcome, but that doesn’t
trump the fact that in this moment, in this hour, you are being called to
walk with Jesus.
The question is, will you go?
iJ.
R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (New York: Ballantine Books, 1965), 19.
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