IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE WINSDAY WISDOM

SESSION 18

The classic Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey. The movie chronicles a young man who gives up his career dreams to help his family. The script was developed from a short story, “TheGreatest Gift,” which could have been titled, “The Most Important Thing in Life.”

Bailey’s decision regarding the direction of his life would help many people in his community of Bedford Falls. His humdrum life in a small town is marked by a generous spirit. However, something happened worse than just a change of plans.

George slowly becomes embittered and angry at feeling trapped by the wasted potential of his choices and unappreciated by those he helped. Then he is falsely accused of theft when money gets misplaced at his business. With his personal and financial troubles too heavy to bear, Bailey plunges into the depths of despair, dangling on the brink of ruin.

George’s contemplated suicide jump from the bridge on Christmas Eve is interrupted by Clarence, his guardian angel. Clarence reviews all the lives touched by George’s kindness through the years and how worse things would have been for so many people if George had not touched their lives with love. Clarence quotes, “It is strange how each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he is not around, he leaves an awful hole.”

Enlightened and joyful, George races home through the snow to his wife, Mary, and little daughter. Upon arrival, he discovers the townspeople had rallied together to donate funds to replace the missing money.

His brother Harry, a war hero, makes a surprise Christmas visit and toasts George as the richest man in town because of all the people he has helped.

The movie concludes when a Christmas tree bell rings, and the daughter recalls a story that the sound of a ringing bell means an angel has earned his wings.

All of life is a stewardship. “Each person’s life touches so many other lives. When any person is not around, it leaves an awful hole.”

Tough times are part of life’s stewardship. Suffering and sickness and sorrow are things we all have in common. There are differences in who we are and where we came from, what we are like, and what we like; but we are all well-acquainted with rough patches in life.

F. Scott Peck began his best-selling book, The Road Less Traveled, by writing, “Life is difficult.” We all know what it feels like to be hurt or undergo loss. We might suffer from different things, in different degrees, in different ways, and for different amounts of time; but we all suffer. 

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth takes an indifferent view to the tough times and tragedies in this life. He sounds more like the man of futility who runs through life without God, chasing the wind. Listen to the words of Shakespeare’s Debby Downer.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,                                                                           Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,                                                                                To the last syllable of recorded time;                                                                                     And all our yesterdays have lighted fools                                                                              The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!                    

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,                                                                           That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,                                                                       And then is heard no more. It is a tale                                                                                  Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury                                                                         Signifying nothing.

Life is about Nothing. Macbeth speaks the words of Shakespeare which sound as if they were plagiarized from the biblical Solomon. Life is an actor running in circles around the stage, chasing the wind. The entire extravaganza signifies nothing. Futility. Vanity.

To Macbeth, all the world is a stage. Life just moves from scene to scene in some rhythmic beat of tomorrows laid end to end. Death seems more like the last act of an unbelievably bad play told by an idiot, full of melodrama, but lacking in substance and purpose. An illusion of shadows.

Why would God cause or allow or permit us to suffer? The #1 Textbook has a straightforward answer. To know God’s love better and to show God’s love better.

In some ways all the world is a stage, and we are actors. However, God is unseen backstage in real control of all that happens. Every scene has eternal purpose. Every act in life interlocks with divine conjunctions…And God…But God (#1 Textbook).

Every player has infinite worth. Every moment is divinely choreographed so “each and every tomorrow might be the most important and happiest day of our lives” (#1 Textbook).

The Author of our wonderful life will write the final chapter which will toast us as the richest man or woman on earth for living the “extraordinary’ life of loving God and loving others. Countless heavenly observers and many earthly lives we have touched will burst forth with thunderous applause on that day when a bell tolls for us.

No, we are not poor performers fretting away our moment in the spotlight of recorded time. We are God’s scripted stars who shine in hope and love as the glorious Lover of our souls choreographs our appearance in the Divine Dance.

Suffering and compassion are two sides of the same coin, side by side. Learn to turn the coin over. Love first. Love most. Even as you hurt. Love others who need comfort and hope.

Each of us, no matter how apparently insignificant in this big world, has the opportunity to make a positive difference. It does not require high position or great possessions or mighty power. It begins with purpose to remember the most important thing in life.

Start with one person today. What would it look like for you to love one person first and most? Tears flow the same way in every language. Put your arm around someone and take time to know his/her history, heartaches, heroes, and hopes.

We do not have to wait until Valentine’s Day to do something angelic or delay until the Christmas season to ring a bell. When we love first and love most, we always end up the most blessed. That is not a movie story. That is biblical truth about this Wonderful Life!

One day, my four-year-old grandson looked with his binoculars into the sky with its moving clouds, and declared, “It sure looks like Jesus is up to something today!”

Every difficult day, no matter what size, shape, or color, comes with instructions about God’s purpose for the most important thing in your life. God is up to something good for you and those you love.

You are always somewhere in the circle of God’s love and forgiveness. The main action inside that circle looks like a dance. Love first. Love most.

The greatest gift is the life God has given you to love others…to make their lives better. Expand your circle. That is a wonderful life!

Anecdote: I memorized this Shakespeare quote from Macbeth in my senior English class. Not by choice. My mother was a wonderful high school English teacher before becoming a college English professor. She insisted that I take another teacher for my senior English class. Mom instructed that teacher to push me to learn more. Mrs. Gardner assigned me Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment for my mandatory book report.

Crime and Punishment is a long, long, long, long, long Russian novel about who knows what. The character names cannot be pronounced and are just skimmed over in reading. Raskonikov, Razumikhin, and Marmeladov are followed by Zossimov and Zamyotove. Right. You get the idea. Somebody did the crime, and somebody got the punishment.

Mrs. Gardner would not accept my book report and told me to redo it. I insisted I had read the book and refused to resubmit another report, even under the threat of receiving an “F”. (Young people do stupid things. That failing grade would have jeopardized my college scholarship, but stubborn young minds do not think in those terms. My parents were not very sympathetic to my protest.)

Mom’s intervention meeting with Mrs. Gardner produced three breakthroughs: (1) Mrs. Gardner confessed she had never read the book. No wonder she could not make sense of my book review. (2) She offered to let me substitute a different book review. (3) I agreed to memorize a short passage from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

This is my confession. That weekend I watched James Bond in the movie from the Ian Fleming novel, Thunderball. My report was awarded an “A.”  I did not learn my lesson about stubbornness or protests. I did learn some Shakespeare.

I have quoted my abbreviated version of Macbeth many times.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day and lights all our yesterdays the way to a dusty death. Life is a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

This Wonderful Life matters. Love First. Love Most.

Love Anchor 1: Remember the most important thing in life. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength; and love others as yourself.

Love Anchor 2: Love First. Love Most. God lives inside of you to lead you to others He intends to love through you.

Love Anchor 3: #1 Textbook. Love for God and love for others lasts forever. The instructions and directions are in the book.

Love Anchor 4: Right Direction. Life is about right direction, not perfection. Course corrections take just one step.

Love Anchor 5: Stay side by side. The only way to love God and love others is side by side.

Love Anchor 6: Be faithful and happy where you are now. God always knows where you are, where you need to be, how to get you there, and when to get you there. Be faithful and happy where you are now.

(Next session) How do you expand your circle of love?

Find someone who is not in your circle of love.