Frodo's Failure

Is there anything that would overpower you — no matter how much willpower, skill, or luck you had?

Frodo failed at the Crack of Doom.

He carried the Ring across Middle-earth. He climbed the mountain. He made it all the way to the fire.

And then he said,

It's mine.

Here's the thing: the Ring was always going to beat him.

Gandalf knew it. Galadriel knew it. Everyone wise enough to understand the Ring refused to carry it.

Frodo wasn't weak.

He was human.

Have you ever stood at your own Crack of Doom?

Watched yourself do something you knew you shouldn't. Couldn't stop. Knew it was wrong mid-fall and fell anyway.

My first wife, Samantha, passed in 2005. On her tombstone she chose these words:

"For it is by grace that we are saved, after all that we do."

I watched her fight. Hard. As long as she could.

I've wondered if that's the clue.

That grace doesn't meet you at the base of the mountain.

It meets you at the fire, after everything you had was spent...

and you still fell.

I've had that prayer answered.

Have you?