Dear Friends,
Do you feel stretched thin? As if you are not enough for these days?
In Fellowship of the Ring J.R.R. Tolkien captures the condition of every age and our lives. As the Covid-19 crisis presses in on us in North America I hear many speaking symptomatically of the condition. Perhaps the contraction of activity and the contraction of our relationship circles is forcing us to acknowledge: we have been stretched thin.
In The Fellowship of the Ring Bilbo Baggins says: “I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”
Ever present in that line is the ring —the ring of power tucked away in Bilbo’s pocket. We like to focus on the words “I feel thin, like butter scraped over too much bread” and forget about the ring.
Seth Godin has suggested that the issue for many of us (in life, leadership and organizations) is “too much bread.” Most of us though read the line as a matter of not enough butter. Godin is onto something: if we idolize busyness then we will keep adding more to our lives so we aren’t really enough. Perhaps he is right: we hide behind busyness rather than risk the focus and vulnerability required to make an impact.
Hmmmm, well no matter the problem — not enough butter or having too much bread, I think Tolkien is onto something. The “ring,” that which had become “the precious” to all who “owned it” stretched out Bilbo’s life, but it had cost him. And so it is with all our idols. They own us. They stretch us out and they exact a toll on us.
Idolatry always believes that this other thing, entity, or accomplishment will truly make us a person; that it will satisfy the longings of our soul and make us loveable, secure, or powerful. But none of that was made to bear the weight of our souls.
Only Jesus can bear the weight of our souls. Everything else will stretch us out and make our souls thin. Our souls were made to find their fullness in God.
The Apostle John and those who received Jesus experienced God’s presence for their lives in a way that kept on and continually added to their lives. They discovered that their affection for Jesus didn’t stretch them thin but actually filled them up.
Notice what John writes of confessionally of Jesus:
16Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
John 1:16-18
Wow! Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. John acknowledges that the Law given through Moses had been a kind of grace. His whole life had been shaped by the Law and a genuine desire to know God. But perhaps his generation had also been stretched thin by their pursuit of the law’s call for perfection. The truth — of knowing God — had been just out of reach. But now in Christ, John and his friends had received grace upon grace; they had received the fullness of God’s presence with them.
This is grace — God’s presence; God’s presence with us providing more than enough. What was Jesus full of? His relationship with the Father.
Oh, let’s repent of the pursuits that stretch us thin. Let’s give up the “rings of power.” Let’s yield our lives to HIm. For Jesus “who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father” is making God, the true source of our lives known.
Let’s Pray.
Heavenly Father,
We were made your communion. But we have collected much and given our lives to guarding that which promised what only you can give. We have hoarded deadly affections. The very real possibility of losing some of these things has created anxiety for us. They have hollowed us out and stretched us thin. Perhaps we have “rings of power” tucked away in our pockets. We thought they would secure our souls. But now, Lord, we feel stretched thin. Forgive us Lord. We repent. We lay them down. We turn to you. Fill us up with your Spirit. Direct us into the life of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we may live. We desire to be in closest relationship with you.
In the name of Jesus we pray,
AMEN.
Our next reading will be John 1:19-28.