RE:framing, Week 5
Week 5: Redeeming Power — Scarcity vs. Abundance
Skill: Find patterns
Tool: Concept Mapping; Trello
Reading: Crouch, Playing God, pp. 207–281
Our reflection this week is courtesy of the indomitable Katherine Kwong.
Gold is an enticing metal. It glimmers and burnishes with light, yet the desire to possess it often makes people as malleable as the metal itself. When Galadriel prophesies over Gimli, she hopes for a future where dwarves, intense miners of the earth, are no longer consumed with the greedy sickness that had claimed many of their finest leaders. For Gimli, the fear of that sickness is ever present, yet Galadriel is showing him the freedom of hoping for a time when he might possess even more than he desires, while still remaining free of its influence.
Another way to be greedy is to horde. Smaug the dragon from Tolkien’s The Hobbit sits atop riches, yet does not use them — he hordes and is as poor as the dwarves who come to seek his treasure. Andy Crouch talks a lot about power and possession in Playing God. In his sections on the Sabbath, the day, the time, the space emerge as a way to enact Galadriel’s prophecy in our own lives. To have work, to have play, to have communion with God are things we are blessed to do. Sabbath is about putting those activities, those powers and opportunities aside and resting in God’s glory and refreshment. It is a deliberate action to refrain from enacting power.
Recently I have found myself in the realm of a hoarder like Smaug. When it comes to rest, I think I’m doing pretty good by not doing school, since that is my primary work. But, then I will fill my rest time with other things, that while good and meaningful are not true rest — it’s only other gems and not gold. During the week, I’ve been stingy with the gifts available to me: wasting time, not making time for the things that give life, and then feeling exhausted because I sat on my pile of possibilities and didn’t use them or share them. And it’s the hoarding that creates the sickness and the sickness that breeds discontent with our access to power or our own perception of power. We were not made to sit atop piles of wealth or power. What were we made for instead?
Gimli, son of Gloin is completely awed by Galadriel. For a parting gift, he asks for no great elven stone; he asks instead for a lock of Galadriel’s hair — a small, temporal, even mean thing. He is granted the request and pledges to keep it as an heirloom of reconciliation between the elves and the dwarves. Similarly, Bilbo, when encountering Smaug is not attracted at all to the mountains of gold and riches. Bilbo really just wants to go back home. His sensitive spirit is eventually rewarded in the friends he makes and wealth he brings home.
In the face of power and wealth, God chose the small, unadorned things to shame those who thought they were rich and powerful. Reflecting on Galadriel’s quote reminds me to desire what is simple, meaningful, and life-giving. It is from that simplicity, that possibility springs and from it a hope that I might one day possess what I desire and more in a way that gives life, not sickness to myself and others. That sounds better than sitting atop heaps of opportunity I am too exhausted or too selfish to use or to enjoy.
Weekly Questions
- In what ways have you been hoarding possessions, energy, time or opportunity in your own life? Think back to a time when you asked God for something simple. What happened? What simple request would you ask of Him now? As you gain a greater perspective on your own personal and creative power, what would be your hope in possessing the power, but not having it rule you?
- What is your relationship with Sabbath? Why is it so hard to follow the fourth commandment to “remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”?
Words for Reflection
“I do not foretell, for all foretelling is now vain: on the one hand lies darkness, and on the other only hope. But if hope should not fail, then I say to you Gimli, son of Gloin, that your hands shall flow with gold, and yet over you gold shall have no dominion.”
-Blessing of Galadriel in Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien
Extra Credit
Make this week the week that you choose to rest, choose to make space for Sabbath. Reach out to friends to hold you accountable. (And be prepared to notice how tired you are. Sabbath tunes us into the things we’ve been tuning out.)
