Recently, in the midst of our most heightened threat window yet, following weeks of attacks, injuries, and fatalities among our ranks, I was lying on my bed, emotionally exhausted (but wide awake) following a series of intense 18-hour days.

I was mindlessly scrolling through movies online, when I stumbled upon my favorite of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the extended version of The Two Towers. It was about half-way through when I found it, and I just lay there watching almost to the end.

Frodo and Sam had been tasked with carrying the ring of power into the heart of the enemy’s camp, so that it could be destroyed there and no longer threaten the world.

Beleaguered by battles, narrow escapes, and exhaustion, Frodo groans, “I can’t do this, Sam.”

Sam replies, “I know. It’s all wrong! By rights we shouldn’t even be here – but we are.”

“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end – because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?”

“But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.”

“But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.”

“What are we holding onto, Sam?” Frodo asked.

“That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo,” answered Sam. “And it’s worth fighting for.”

J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, was a Christian who wove his faith into his writings. I can identify with Sam’s sense of “what am I doing here?” As National Guardspeople, many of our Soldiers – myself included – are not career warriors, but are primarily civilians. We are students, laborers, teachers, tradespeople, emergency responders and more, who joined the Guard to help pay for school, or to serve our State, or to support our families, or to obey a sense of calling or duty. Now we find ourselves 8500 miles from home, repeatedly wondering, “What on earth we are doing here?”

“By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are,” Sam said. “How could the end of this be happy?” Sam asked, “when so much darkness and danger and bad has happened?”

Tolkien reminds us through Sam that, “Even darkness must pass. A new day will come… Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something… That there’s some good in this world… And that it’s worth fighting for.”

I know it’s scary. And I know it’s stressful. But don’t turn back now. Lean on your training. Rely on your battle buddies. Trust in God, and keep on going. And keep holding on to the good in this world that is worth fighting for.