I keep a rather long reading list.

As books and articles of interest or importance cross my path, they tend to land in a couple of different "read later" buckets. Between books on my Kindle and articles in my Instapaper, I never have a lack of things to read.

If I had complete sovereignty of my time, reading would consume the vast majority of my days. I'm thankful for audiobooks, which allows me to read while doing monotonous things like gardening and the dishes. (Whispersync technology between my Audible account and my Kindle is a thing of magic and beauty.)

But I made the mistake of reading my Twitter feed yesterday, instead of one of the things on my reading list. As I scrolled the vitriol and toxic conversations around the brokenness we are experiencing right now, I realized what I need to read next.

We live in an era of politicizing death and sickness.

We have leaders at every level blatantly using power to prop up their agendas, rather than using power to serve people.
There are socialists to the left and fascists to the right and any sort of middle ground seems to be crumbling around us.
The world as we know it is changing and none of us knows what it will look like in a year. We're uncertain about next week.
People are anxious, afraid, and confused.
The safety net of a "strong economy" is gone, and many feel the sensation of freefalling into the abyss.
And we don't know what waits for us at the bottom. Hope seems like a castle in the sky.

That's why I picked up the Fellowship of the Ring today. It's time to read the most important trilogy of books in my life.
Again.

I don't know how many times I've read Tolkien's magnum opus. At least 7-10 times in my life. Probably more.

The beauty of this story is a reminder that there is sovereignty behind the tragedy, and we don't always know why. This story reminds me to look for beauty behind the darkness.
For hope when everything seems rather hopeless.
For life after death.

For birds singing in Wuhan.

So it's time to read what I've already read to remind myself of what I already know.
Because it's so easy to forget.
And we must not forget.

We must not lose hope.