Leading By Putting One Foot In Front Of The Other
During my rereading and study of The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, Book 1) by J. R. R. Tolkien I am also reading the great book by Fleming Rutledge, The Battle for Middle-earth: Tolkien’s Divine Design in The Lord of the Rings. Rutledge started with The Hobbit and then works through all the books. I love his work because he is breaking all of Tolkien’s work down and finding the subtleties the way my mind does when I read. He is a whole lot more scholarly about it than me!
This morning in my reading, Rutledge broke down the Greek word Hupomonē from the first chapter of Revelations in the Bible. Hupomonē can be translated to mean “perseverance,” “steadfastness,” “fortitude,” or “patience.” Rutledge asserted that, “It [Hupomonē] is not a glamorous virtue like courage or valor. It sends off no fireworks. Yet it is required of all who would fight the good fight, and there is no one, however lowly, who cannot serve in this way. Bilbo, the rather comical little peace-loving hobbit, is given two or three really heroic moments, but 98 percent of his journey “there and back again” is just putting one foot in front of the other, week after weary week” (p. 60). I spoke about “fortitude” in my new book Mere Leadership asserting that fortitude demands stepping outside of our comfort zone and challenging prevailing beliefs or perceptions. The Hobbit, through Bilbo, reminded us that we don’t get a lot of the big-time heroic moments that often make the news in life. We do, however, do important and significant work every day. Like Bilbo, we put one foot in front of the other.
Byron's Babbles 
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