You Should Be More Like Aragorn

Yes. You should have straggly hair and and an unkempt beard and you should stop for meals but twice a day. Well, not really. I suppose the beard thing isn't even an option for some of you. But seriously though ...

I lived in Middle Earth for about, oh, say, three years, and I'm thinking I should probably move back again. The friends I made there were some of the best role models I've ever had. Aragorn, or Strider, was the best of all. Healer, hunter, warrior, tracker, negotiator, not to mention king: this guy's resume makes mine look like Waldo's (I think all he ever does is stand around).

When analyzing literature, you generally find three different types of conflict: Man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. self. (Of course, in LOTR the man vs. man category broadens a bit. It's more like man vs. man or orc or ring wraith or cave troll or witch king or wizard or perhaps even a rogue hobbit who's lost all sense of morality.) Aragorn faced each of these three types of conflict, and he triumphed in every case. Orcs, blizards, and tempations could not beat him down. He rose above all to drive evil from the land and to resist the evil within himself. And when he became king, he made Middle Earth happy and wholesome for all who did right by each other. 

What struck me most about Aragorn was his patience. I can't remember Aragorn ever being petty. I don't even seem to recall him ever once snapping out in irritability. He was so above all that. In all circumstances, he remained collected, brave, competent, gracious, selfless. His bearing was always that of a king, even before he came to the throne. 

As a Christian, I am an adopted child of God, a child of the King. Royalty, if you will. But I certainly don't always act like it. I just do what I want in the moment, imagining that it is better to FEEL good than to BE good. Reading about Aragorn, however, reminds me that BEING good might actually feel better in the end. 

So, how about it, kids? Let's try to be more like Aragorn. Starting with the straggly beard.