With all that has unfolded this week of evil and horror, the scene between Sam and Frodo from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers has been fresh in my mind.

FRODO: I can’t do this, Sam.

SAM: 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.

FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?

SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

As Israel and the rest of the world face these dark, horrific days, we still look for and embrace the good. This is the reason for Feel-Good Friday.

A young man named Zack has been on a road to recovery. He was hiking with a bunch of friends in Wyoming's Teton range in the Rocky Mountains near the Idaho border, when he encountered something unexpected. Zack rose to this challenge, and did something equally unexpected. 

We recently received an email about a man named Zack. It said:

Zack, myself and two friends were traveling home after a day of hiking in the Tetons. We pulled over to switch drivers and Zack found $3,700 in 100 dollar bills in an envelope on the ground. Without hesitation, he began efforts to find the owner that had lost this money. Thankfully there was a deposit slip in the envelope and he was more than excited to call the owner and tell them he had found their money. It was an elderly couple that had sold their pickup to a grandson. They were in tears when we arrived. Zack continues to be a mentor and role model in the recovery community – always willing to help anyone and always doing the next right thing. A few years ago he was not the person that would have returned that money. We still to this day tell that story of doing the right thing.

When East Idaho News correspondent Nate Eaton asked Zack why he didn't keep the money, Zack said, "I could have, I think the old me would have. But, it was the right thing to do."

WATCH:

This is more than a Good Samaritan story, it's a story about change and redemption. I know a dear lady whose son has battled with addiction. The hardest part is changing the people around you and then changing your habits. It is clear Zack has been working on both, and it's wonderful that the community chose to honor that. Who couldn't use a dinner at Texas Roadhouse and some swag from Amazon? But I think the greater honor and the bigger reward is that Zack further deepened the foundation of the new person he working towards becoming. That's something that no amount of money could ever purchase. 

Honoring those who are working hard to be better people than they were yesterday is one way of acknowledging the Good in the world that we should fight for. What Good are you finding in your world? How do you plan to fight for its existence?