“What are we holding on to, Sam?”

“I can’t do this, Sam.”

“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered.  Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those  were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”

“What are we holding on to, Sam?”

“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.”

~The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Every time I watch the two towers I hold my breath during this scene. It’s so true. In all the stories and fairytales, the good wins and the evil loses. and sometimes it looks like evil is gonna win, and then, by some miracle, Good prevails. Light dispells the darkness. The real question is, What do we have worth fighting for? What’s worth holding on to? In Lord of the Rings, it’s the thought of home. That applies to my life. Heaven is my home. I can get through the trials and the storms and the darkness with the thought of heaven. and of course heaven’s master. There is good in the world, and it IS worth fighting for. In fact, we are called to fight for it. We can hold on to the hope that someday it’ll be all better.

So, If Frodo were to ask me that question…. my answer would be the same as Sam’s “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”