It's A Wonderful Life

Happy New Year everyone.

I just wanted to take one more chance to say thank you for your support this year. Your generous giving allows many people to know Jesus in an intimate way and come to trust Him for everything that they need.

As I watched It's a Wonderful Life last night with my mom and my wife Dawn, I was reminded in a very moving way how much each of our lives touches the people around us, and how much God pours His Life through us to serve each other, even when we don't realize He's doing it.

I could completely identify with the moment of anger and despair that George Bailey experienced as he came home to his family on Christmas and carried the knowledge that his world was coming crashing down around him and all because of a loss of $8000. Mind you, I'm not complaining because we are not suffering from lack, I'm just saying that I often respond to my own family in an unkind manner as George did because I'm carrying worry about money and how I will provide for them. But then George Bailey learns what the world would look like if he had never been born, if every opportunity to show the grace and strength and love of God had been missed. How great is the love that God pours though even a single life. (Side note: If you get a chance to watch the movie, watch the   way Clarence the angel talks to God. I so identify with that conversational style of relating to Him.)

As George Bailey/Jimmy Stewart stood at the end of the movie and received the support of all the Bedford Falls towns people whose lives he had touched, I was reminded of you, because you have touched my life in this way. Not only have you poured out God's blessing into my lap, but you have allowed me to touch the lives of other people with the power of His Life, and this is a gift beyond comparison. So, thank you for being participants in the outpouring of His Love.

I have the privilege to belong to a wonderful church where I see this love of Christ demonstrated in a vivid way all the time. The Church at Grace Life (a sister ministry to GMI where I work), and our pastor, Herb Sims is such a beautiful expression of God's grace in my life that I want to share with you a letter Herb recently wrote. If you have time I encourage you to read it, if not, I'll just let you know that it is about the readjustment of our perceptions of the new year from goals and responsibilities, to the opportunity to let God display His kindness towards us and through us.

As I reflect on the kindness of God, I'm reminded of a conversation I had with Jesus this morning. You see, my little boy Leif is sick. In fact, we just got back from the hospital. He has a fever, an ear infection and chest congestion, so he coughed and cried through the night, and Dawn and I were both up with him (mostly Dawn). I tend to have a pretty negative attitude about these things, and feeling tired while facing a 17 hour drive back to Georgia is not my idea of a good time. I confess that I even have a tendency to complain to God sometimes. Well, as lay awake in the night listening to Leif coughing, wincing each time heard him cry in pain, I spoke to God about this suffering. This morning Jesus shared the most transforming thought with me.

"Charles, when things go wrong for you,
or for the people around you,
you don't have to complain or get angry.
When you see suffering it is an opportunity
for you to experience and to show My Kindness.
So take advantage of suffering
by allowing my Kindness to flow through you to anyone in need."

I immediately thought of Leif, and how many times I will have a chance in the coming days to show him the tenderness of God towards his suffering and sickness. I realize that as we travel, I will have so many places where I can show Dawn, Leif and Owen the care that God shows towards them through me. Of course, I could also get impatient and complain, feel sorry for myself or get angry, but in the light of God's perspective and His words to me, those just don't seem as attractive as the kindness route right now. I take great pleasure in the thought of God manifesting His tenderness through me, and maybe this pleasure is the power of the gospel. I may get impatient, but I know that at those times I will need to know His kindness towards me most completely, and so extend it to my family.

Even now, as I reflect further, I see how Jesus saw each crippled or sick person brought before Him not as a problem to be fixed, but as an opportunity for God to display His Grace to them. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matt. 9:12-13. People who don't think they need anything, aren't looking to receive kindness or grace, but those of us who realize our need are all the more ready to receive, and offer grace to each other. So in the coming year, as I focus on God's kindness to me (the more I think about it the more I think that kindness a wonderful word that helps me connect with what Grace really means) I'll have His words resonating in my heart.

 Every time you see suffering, it is an opportunity to receive and express My Kindness.

Be Loved,

Charles