This week I was really struggling with feelings of insignificance and having moments of ‘what has been the point of life?” I think I was ‘ambushed’ emotionally and hit a downward spiral.  While I having coffee with a couple of buddies, one of them sensed I was not my cheerful upbeat self.

The next day I received these lines from my friend who had hand copied this paragraph in the middle of the night to send to me, his friend Luch.  It reminded me of that ancient scripture that says, “A friend loves at all times….” Not just when we’re up. Not just when we’re the one who is encouraging and dispensing good thoughts and feelings to others, but they love even when you are not well, and when you need a word of encouragement and support.

So read on and see how a friend can breath spiritual oxygen into one’s sagging soul.

Hi Luch,

I enjoyed our meeting today. You seemed a little down, or at least struggling for meaning. As you are always sending me pieces of inspiration, I thought I would send you one. It is a small passage from the Lord of the Rings. Frodo and Sam have almost reached Mount Doom, and their weariness and despair are almost at their height ” Sam struggled with his own weariness, and he took Frodo’s hand; and there he sat silent till deep night fell. Then at last, to keep himself awake, he crawled from the hiding-place and looked out. The land seemed full of creaking and cracking and sly noises, but there was no sound of voice or of foot. Far above the Ephel Duath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and piercing thing: there was light and high beauty far ever beyond it reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo’s side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.”This passage expresses beautifully one example of the connection I was trying to express to you. It puts into perspective the importance of our human endeavours in comparison to the glory of something that is greater than we are.