In the 1946 movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” (produced and directed by Frank Capra) there is a powerful quote that always sends shivers down my spine – “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” The angel in the movie was trying to reason with the man who had just tried to take his own life, as he felt he was better off dead than alive. THAT is the kind of ending to our story that we do NOT want to write.
YOU MATTER
Most of us are very good at writing a concise list of our failures, and maybe even entertaining thoughts that others might be better off without us – we think perhaps we mess everything up, or we are a burden. These are the lies that DO drive people to suicide. Suicide ends a story prematurely and what might have been will never be known.
Let’s talk about the “awful hole” left behind if not for us. That is actually hard to do, when you don’t believe that to be true. But just for a minute, stop and think of all the people in your life – all the memories – all the chapters written thus far in the story of YOU – all the good things you have accomplished, even just a smile – while sometimes the story is messy for sure, still yet – YOU were placed in it for a reason or MANY reasons. You matter. Your part could be the missing piece of puzzle. We just don’t have any way to know what it would look like had we never existed. We can at least know it would have been very different for all those who know and love us.
COME OUT OF YOUR HIDING
When you allow yourself to face that most painful thing that has kept you captive and on lockdown – when you find the key and dare to unbolt the door, THAT is the very instant that the rest of your story begins to change. It is literally birthed in a moment/ in the blink of an eye. From that moment on, change can begin IF you take the healing journey. You must however see your own worth TO take this journey – you must WANT to do it for yourself. The doing it for others will follow. But first, start with you.
My ability to write a different ending to my story started when I faced the truth of what sexual abuse had done to the deepest parts of my soul. In that dark moment there was a dire choice presented – one that lied to me and one that spoke truth. The lie says we are too far gone and the damage is irreversible. The truth says – well, it says ah, as you acknowledge the ugly truth, you are free from the lie. It is so crazy how that works, yet – it does. There is something incredibly life altering and life changing as you pull up that ugly root that has been choking the life out of you.
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE
When you finally and fearfully allow yourself to take a good, hard look AT yourself, the first thing you see IS the flaws and the broken parts. Which makes sense of course, or there probably wouldn’t have been a pressing reason FOR the good, hard look. BUT. Satan would LOVE to leave you there – right there. Staring at your failures and your regrets. And making you question and doubt your very existence. And honestly without JESUS, we WOULD be stuck – right there.
JESUS says in John 8:32 – “You will know the truth (THAT is the good, hard look) and the truth (What you see right there) will set you FREE.” The freedom is in facing the BAD so we can get TO the GOOD. We miss that part. Once the fog clears on a cool October morning out in the woods (if by chance you are a hunter or a bird watcher you know what I mean), you can see for miles. The trees become more vibrant in color – and the GOOD comes into view.
RISING UP
So, if you (like me) are doing an inventory of your soul, toss out the old / make room for the new/ AND find the buried treasures you had forgotten all about. Ask yourself what that is for you personally – then go dust it off, shine it up, and get back to living in FREEDOM.
The man in the movie gets a glimpse of the chapters of his life without him in them, and how different it would have all played out. He changed his mind about taking his own life and decided that living was worth whatever he had to go through to KEEP on living. When we each face the ‘dark night of the soul’ when we think it is over, really – it can just be the beginning – the beginning of a NEW ending to our story. The one where whatever meant to destroy us is destroyed BY us/The one where we understand what an awful hole would be left behind without us/The one where we get to rise like a phoenix – “To rise like a phoenix from the ashes means to emerge from a catastrophe stronger, smarter and more powerful.” (Octavia Butler)
It really IS a wonderful life (with Jesus by your side and in your heart)!
_________
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