It Really IS a Wonderful Life!
Like many of you, one of my favorite Christmas movies is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” We all know the classic tale of a talented young man named George Bailey who dreams of adventure in exotic lands. He sees himself going to college and becoming a great architect and builder. These hopes are shattered when his father dies suddenly and George is forced to take over the family business.
George postpones his own dreams due to a feeling of love and obligation for his family. This becomes painfully clear when a crisis arises and in a fit of anger he kicks over a model of a suspension bridge and a high rise building—the remnants of his dream to be an architect.
It’s in these dashed hopes where we often see ourselves. You may desire to be a revered best-selling author and speaker. Yet the reality may be that you work a job which you only endure—or worse, despise—and you write when you can, early in the morning, at night, or on the weekends.
Like George, the responsibilities of life have you tied down to a life that can often seem like drudgery.
Later, when his absent-minded uncle misplaces a large sum of money, George is faced with the possibility of going to jail. After a futile search for the funds, George cries out to heaven in desperation. God answers this prayer by sending a gentle, simple-minded angel named Clarence to help him.
“It figures I’d get an angel like you,” George laments. “It would have been better if I was never born.”
Clarence arranges for George to see what life would have been like if he had not been there to influence the world around him. George discovers that many of the people he loved would have suffered greatly, or even died, if he had not been there to help them.
In this touching story we can see that just like George Bailey, God created each of us with a purpose to fulfill. The Apostle Paul writes,
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10, NASB)
If God has gifted you as a writer and speaker, then it’s for a purpose. Ours is not to fret over how many people are reading our stuff. If one life is changed and transformed by the gospel through our writing, then isn’t that enough? And if we are doing our part to get the word out, then with God’s help, we will reach many more than just one.
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