George Bailey was the Jimmy Stewart character in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. Stewart played the frustrated building and loan manager who wished he had never been born, until he was given a glimpse of what his corner of the world would have been without him.
A few years back I left an employer of many years for an opportunity elsewhere. Some clients were people I had worked with for more than two decades on their personal financial affairs. During that time I walked with them through valleys and over mountaintops. I saw them though weddings and divorces, widowhood and acceptance. I guided them through goal setting and goal reaching. I helped people dream and helped those dreams become reality. I eased their paths and helped them to see that financial wellbeing is not a goal in itself but a means to freedom. I held them steady through trying financial times and through the emotions that accompany our major life events.
When caught in the middle of two decades of laying bricks one at time, we can fail to catch a glimpse of the building we are building. But the personal notes of thanks, the tears of farewell, the disbelief that “you’re leaving me”, and the expressions of hope that I would continue to work with them helped me to understand that the daily frustrations and often tedious work has borne some fruit. The odd thing about it was how I did not see the fruit at the time, but only after the fact. The daily act of living obscured the big picture of life, and only after stepping back and looking could I see that I had made a difference.
George Bailey had learned a lesson, that the lives he had touched with his own were better for it even if it was not apparent at the time. Elijah didn’t know that four thousand of his countrymen were on the same side of the cultural divide as he in spite of his perception that he was all alone.
Even the Apostle Paul needed to be brought back to the reality that what he was doing was making a difference. In the city of Corinth he preached the gospel in the synagogue, but was so frustrated by the apparent lack of interest that he exclaimed, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." (Acts 18:6 NIV) Yet immediately after that outburst, we’re told that he went “next door to the house of Titius Justus.” So in spite of Paul’s consternation, someone had responded to his preaching! And immediately after that Crispus, who was the chief ruler of the synagogue, his whole household, and many others also believed and were baptized.
Paul’s frustrations with his apparent lack of fruit were more of a problem of perception than reality. Jesus Christ himself had to tell to Paul in a vision to stay on in Corinth and to keep on working “because I have many people in this city.” (v9 – 10)
It’s easy to get frustrated with the nuts and bolts, but the world without you would be an incomplete place. You touch more lives than you know. Whether you are trying to get the gospel to the world or just doing what you do to make a living, what you do makes a difference. Casting your bread on the waters will always come back many fold. Some day you’ll know that what you do makes a difference. Just ask George Bailey.
0 comments:
Post a Comment