Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash

The Hobbit Chapter 5: Riddles in the Dark

Chapter Summary

Bilbo becomes separated from the dwarves in the dark goblin tunnels beneath the Misty Mountains. Lost and alone, he crawls through the darkness until his hand touches something unexpected:

Continuing through the tunnels, Bilbo encounters Gollum, a strange creature living on an island in an underground lake. They engage in a riddle contest—if Bilbo wins, Gollum will show him the way out; if Gollum wins, he gets to eat Bilbo. After a tense battle of wits, Bilbo accidentally wins by asking “What have I got in my pocket?” Enraged, Gollum realizes his precious ring is missing and guesses that Bilbo has it. Bilbo accidentally discovers the ring’s power of invisibility and uses it to escape both Gollum and the goblins, eventually reuniting with the dwarves and Gandalf outside the mountain.

“He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it. He put the ring in his pocket almost without thinking; certainly it did not seem of any particular use at the moment.”

Reflections on Hidden Turning Points

Thirty-nine years ago, when I was between ministry assignments, the missions committee of a church I was attending sponsored a night of decorating paper shopping bags and filling them with personal items—shampoo, bars of soap, notepads—for inmates at the county jail. I volunteered to deliver the bags to the chaplain who served the jail.

Little did I know that volunteering for that delivery would be a turning point in my life.

When I arrived at the jail, built in 1837 when locks and keys were still used to secure inmates in their cells, the chaplain invited me to assist her in handing out the Christmas care bags. When we entered the first cellblock, where inmates were crowded together in the hallway in front of their cells, the chaplain handed me some bags and pushed me in among the inmates eager to receive their care packages.

I was terrified.

But as I greeted the inmates and handed them their Christmas bags, something shifted. I realized for the first time that these were not monsters or abstractions—they were human beings. Real people with stories, families, regrets, and hopes.

That experience led me to apply for an open position on the chaplain’s team. It became the beginning of eleven years of correctional chaplaincy that ended in 2001. My work at the jail was also the impetus for me to obtain four units of Clinical Pastoral Education, using my experience in the jail as my field assignment.

I continued in ministry and other work for nearly two decades. Then, in 2020, my ministry career came full circle when I began three years as a hospice chaplain before retiring in 2023.

All of it—the education, the years of ministry, the privilege of sitting with people at life’s most vulnerable moments—began with bottles of shampoo and bars of soap in decorated paper bags.

The Hidden Nature of Turning Points

George Washington observed: “The turning points of lives are not the great moments. The real crises are often concealed in occurrences so trivial in appearance that they pass unobserved.”

Like Bilbo, who stumbled upon the ring of power in the dark and stuck it in his pocket not knowing the adventure it would take him and others on, I had no idea that those Christmas bags marked the beginning of my own adventure—a turning point concealed in something so ordinary it could have easily passed unnoticed.

Turning points are most often discovered in retrospect. We don’t recognize them in the moment. We’re just crawling through the dark, doing the next small thing in front of us, and our hand touches something we almost dismiss as insignificant.

But years later, we look back and see: That was when everything changed.

Your Turn

So take a moment now and reflect:

Where have the turning points in your life been? What seemingly small, trivial moments led you to where you are now?

And what might you be touching right now—in this present darkness—that you’re tempted to dismiss as unimportant?

Pay attention. You might be holding your own ring of power.

About Jim Cyr

Jim Cyr is a retired minister. He has had adventures as a pastor, crisis intervention specialist, jail and hospice chaplain, and storyteller. His journeys have taken him all over the United States and to Canada, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Europe, and the Philippines. His wisdom teachers have included his dog, good church people, alcoholics, drug addicts, thieves, embezzlers, murderers, sex offenders, mob wise-guys, out of control kids, parents at the end of their rope, bad bosses and good bosses, people taking their last breath, three wives, multiple stepchildren, mystics past and present, Muslims, Jews, Christians, and stories.

Learn more about Jim’s spiritual companionship and storytelling at www.jimcyr.com.

Leave a comment