I am nearly finished reading Tolkien’s novel “The Hobbit.” It is one of my all time favorite novels, and I have read it enough times that I have actually lost count. One of my favorite things about the novel is that the main character, Bilbo the hobbit, loves comfort and ease in life. He lives in a protected world where he never faces any difficulty or challenge apart from annoyance over inconvenience. For those unfamiliar with the story, Bilbo is recruited as a burglar to help a group of dwarves in their adventure. During the story, our hero faces all sorts of dangerous, difficult, painful, and terrifying situations. He never stops wishing he was still home, but over the course of the story, he changes. He goes from a soft creature, to an adventurer. He discovers bravery in himself and grows. This isn’t an unusual story type, but I have always appreciated the way that Tolkien writes his characters’ growth and development. The thing that I especially love about “The Hobbit” is that hardship and challenge are the engine of growth. This is one of those weird truths in life that is easy to overlook, especially when facing challenges. In the Bible, James describes it in this way: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” The idea is that the more hardship we face, the more we grow in faith. Growing stronger in our spiritual life and character comes about through enduring hard things in righteous ways. The problem is that it is often difficult to do. We struggle with the weight of our fears, worries, losses, etc., which causes us to lose sight of the potential. There is a catch to it, though. Hard times can cause us to grow or they can crush us. Growing in strength through hardship is a product of facing our problems, leaning on God, finding support in our peers, praying, trusting, and choosing growth. The opposite outcome is possible if we choose to be demoralized, to hide, to bury everything deep and pretend it didn’t happen, to drink our cares away, or to simply become bitter. It’s a crazy truth that the same hardship can produce strength or destroy us based purely on how we work through the situation. This may seem like a trite perspective, but it is not mine alone. For millennia, writers and thinkers have pointed to the difficulties in life as the source of strength for us. Beyond that, simply looking at the hard situations we face as an opportunity to grow gives us a reason be happy or grateful in hard times. When things are tough, we need help from our neighbors and from God. We learn and grow that way. It is a blessing, but a hard one.
