Aragorn shares that he, as the last Númenórean king, was given the gift of a long life (three times that of normal men) and the ability to choose his time of death. Ready, now, to make that choice, Aragorn says that it is time for him to "give back the gift" of life.
That phrase--"give back the gift"--struck me. Specifically, I felt it to be an apt summary for how to live one's entire life. A life well-lived is a life devoted toward giving back the gift.
There are a couple threads I'd like to tie together here.
First, and most centrally, is the conviction that life is a gift. A phrase I've taken from David Kelsey in this regard is "doxological gratitude." Recognizing life as a gift means practicing doxological gratitude, living out of praise and thanksgiving.
Next, giving back the gift requires a non-grasping posture toward life. The seconds are ticking away, but I cannot hold myself in being. For most of us, this triggers an anxious survival instinct, a desire to grasp at life. To freeze time. To cling. To make life a possession that I can hoard and protect.
This is, of course, completely delusional. As the Star Trek fans like to say, resistance is futile. A more healthy posture is a non-grasping posture toward life. Instead of "grasping" we "let go." We step into the stream of our finitude. We surrender to time. We embrace our mortality.
But again, this surrender isn't futile or despairing. It is filled with doxological gratitude. We recognize that life is a gift and we joyfully give back that gift.
Finally, I've often described love as the "allocation of our dying." Since we're always moving toward death with each passing moment we decide how to "allocate" our dying. We choose how we will die. We decide how to give our lives away. I think this is what Paul means when he says in 2 Corinthians, "death is at work in us but life in you." I can use my dying to help others flourish. That is the definition of love, and why love is described as sacrificial. A lot of us get triggered by the word "sacrifice," thinking that "sacrificial love" implies some harm to the self. But if we recognize that love is the allocation of our dying we come to see how any investment in others, like taking time to listen to a friend, is a sacrifice, a choice you are making about how to die. Love is sacrificial not because you're falling on your sword or putting your mental health at risk. Love is sacrificial simply because you're choosing to spend some of the few precious seconds of life in loving and caring for others. Love is sacrificial because you are choosing to die--that is, spend your time--in a way that gives life to others.
So, dying well, which means loving well, is how we give back the gift.
These, then, are three threads about what it means to "give back the gift" of your life.
First, doxological gratitude. Recognizing the gift as a gift.
Next, not clinging to or hoarding the gift but surrendering it back to the Giver.
And lastly, allocating our "giving back" in a way that gives life to others. To make our surrender a sacrifice of love.
