“It’s a wonderful life!” This was the name of the movie that Jimmy Stewart starred in as George Bailey. However, his circumstances were anything but wonderful, or so George thought. He saw his life plagued by the ordinary, the mundane and even drudgery at times. He never got to do the great things, the exceptional things that he wanted to do. He longed to leave his hometown of Bedford Falls to attend college, travel the world, be an engineer and “build things.” Instead he walked the path that had been laid for him. He chose to accept the responsibilities that were extended to him even though it meant giving up his dreams in order that others may have theirs.
He didn’t realize how exceptional his life was. He failed to see how his persistence in the everyday affairs of life were extraordinary. Although he wasn’t designing and building structures, he was investing in and building lives— many lives that would have fallen through the cracks had he not been there to prevent it. He was only able to recognize how nobly his life had impacted others after his guardian angel Clarence, showed him what the world would have been like had he never been born.
It can be similar in ministry, especially within the Teen Challenge ministry. Many times it may seem little of significance gets done when time is stretched so thin taking care of everyday needs such as, phone calls to answer, appointments to keep, errands to run, fundraising to do, crises to manage, buildings and vehicles to maintain, plus taking care of the needs of those who are under your care.
However, you as George Bailey, keep at it. You never give up. You may get weary but never tire of thinking of others and doing the right thing. It is difficult in the middle of everyday living to realize the impact one has on the lives of others. But as you continue your daily task of spiritually planting seeds and watering the lives of those to whom you minister, individuals are literally rescued from physical and spiritual death. As Oswald Chambers states in My Utmost for Highest:
… it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God— but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people…
Let us persevere in the “…race that has been set before us looking to Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith…” Hebrews 12:1 Continue to be “exceptional in the ordinary things of life” because it truly is a wonderful life!
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