The Eowyn Challenge

No... Not the challenge to exercise through Middle Earth, not the challenge to bribe Tolkienites into healthy lifestyles. Though I have indulged in that Eowyn Challenge, today mine is different. Do you remember this dialogue from the film?

Aragorn! I'm to be sent with the women into the caves.

That is an honorable charge.

To mind the children, to find food and bedding when the men return. What renown is there in that?

My lady, the time may come for valor without renown. Who then will your people look to in the last defenses?

Since my introduction to Lord of the Rings, I have always felt a keen empathy with Eowyn. As the years pass, I discover more and more similarities between the two of us that bind my heart closer to hers. We both love our families, we both block people out, we both dream of noble deeds, we both have gorgeous hair (in my dreams, at least), etc. Today, a new one has surfaced.

We both struggle with behind the scenes servanthood. Most people assume that this struggle comes from a desire to be celebrated and praised. This is definitely a factor; however, I know for myself, and I believe for Eowyn too, that this is not the whole of the picture.

As I've already mentioned here today, one of my closest friends is undergoing serious surgery in a city an hour's drive away. This girl is so loved and cherished, many have flocked to the hospital, all the while knowing that we will know nothing for a while. They just want to be there to support the family, to support one another, to be right there in the thick of it. But, I cannot be there. There are tasks at home that must be accomplished, and I have been left responsible for them.

As I go about the mundane chores, I think of how much greater and nobler sitting nervously at the hospital would be. I consider the anxious thrill I could experience there as I try to keep my cool and comfort others. I wish I could be there to hear the news immediately, to be there in the midst of the storm, rather than learning secondhand, sitting on the edge.

I think this is Eowyn's struggle as well. Sit in the caves, not knowing what fate befalls us? No! We'd rather be standing on the battlements, as the mud forms from the rain and the sweat and the blood. We'd rather be fighting with all our might, even if it means exhaustion, confusion, and death. We'd rather join hands with our comrades and brave the gruesome sights, sounds, and smells of battle. Anything but being forced to sit in the caves, alone, waiting to learn what everyone else already knows.

In my sinfulness, I could curl up on the couch and mourn over the cruelness of my lot, to be left at home, yet again, to clean and cook and wash and wait. But, by God's grace, I turn down the seductive invitation to a pity-party. Instead I will, like Eowyn, bind up my hair and fold up my sleeves. I will set to work and complete each task, however small and mundane with excellence and precision.

I know that I am called to each task for a purpose. As Aragorn reminds Eowyn, working on the home-front is no less honorable than charging on the battlefield. After all, the most terrifying and ferocious battle is being fought here where the greatest enemy challenges me, in the very depths of my soul.