It's a Wonderful, Self-sacrificial Life
Frank Capra’s 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” was at one time considered possibly the most “can’t miss” holiday film, with multiple generations of America watching it every year at Christmastime. It seems that it has failed to translate to recent generations, falling out of most younger people’s lists of favorite Christmas movies. The most obvious reason that this film has become less popular in recent decades is that it is nearly 80 years old and shot in black and white. But as I was watching it this past [Christmas Season] I noticed a few other reasons why the film’s storyline and values resonate less and less with Americans as time goes by.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” tells the story of a man named George Bailey from a small middle American town called Bedford Falls. Ever since George was a boy he had grand dreams in his head of all the places in the world he would travel and all the magnificent experiences he would have and what a name he would make for himself. And yet, time and again, George’s pursuit of his dreams is stymied by his life circumstances. Over and over during the course of his life, when George is about set to chase his dreams, disaster strikes … Responsibility calls … Life happens. And at every challenge, George does the right thing. He denies himself. He answers the call to service and responsibility, serving the poor of his local community and his family.
But, even when doing right, he unknowingly allows a seed of resentment to grow in his heart.
When George’s business is faced with bankruptcy he, despondent, goes to a bridge and contemplates taking his own life. From his perspective, his life has been a failure. He hasn’t pursued his dreams, he hasn’t attained his goals, he hasn’t been true to himself, he hasn’t followed his heart. He has denied himself and served others his whole life and for what? Life in a broken down old house, running a bankrupt business, serving a bunch of ungrateful nobodies in a nowhere town? Maybe it would have been better if I had never been born, he concludes.
Thankfully, his guardian angel intervenes and shows him all of the ways his service has touched and changed the lives of others. George leaves the bridge without any of the circumstances of life having been changed, but he has a new perspective. He no longer resents his family, his broken down house, the people of his little town. He sees them as beautiful and worthy of his love and care regardless of their flaws.
The film could have ended there, honestly. The victory was won. but Hollywood needs things to be wrapped up in a sentimental and “on the nose” fashion of course, so the whole town arrives to shower George with love and to donate money to pay off his debts.
Now, I ask, why is this story not translating to modern Americans? Because our value system has fundamentally changed as a culture. Our greatest good is now to be authentic to your individual self. It is considered deeply, psychologically unhealthy to deny your desires for the good of others. Our shared cultural imagination now holds self fulfillment as the greatest good rather than self denial. Self-denial has gone from being a mark of highest virtue to instead be considered a pathology.
Choose almost any popular film or book written in the past 50 years and you will find the protagonist usually has some version of this character arch: their community has been oppressing them, stifling their creativity, stifling their self expression. Their cultures do not allow them full self expression and so they must go beyond the bounds of their society on a journey to find themselves. To follow their heart. And by following their own desires and instincts, they become a fully actualized, a truly happy person who is able to go back home and save the day, showing everyone just how wrong they were to doubt them.
"It’s a Wonderful Life" tells a very different story. It says that George, in setting aside his dreams and submitting to a life of responsibility, unwittingly has the most fulfilled and satisfying life possible. This is deeply offensive to our 21st century sensibilities. It is definitely a more Eastern, older world, collective, perspective. And yet, not completely so. Because, rather than devaluing the individual, it emphasizes the immeasurable value and impact of every individual person, every human life. This elevation of individual value is different from simply an old-world, Eastern, collective viewpoint. It is, whether intentionally or not, a deeply Christian way of looking at things.
The Bible consistently holds up to us the message that love and service of God and others, along with the mastery of our own selfishness, leads to our deepest possible fulfillment. That pursuit of self is, literally, hell.
Jesus is our greatest example of setting aside self ambition in order to love and serve the undeserving and ungrateful Other. He himself refers to John the Baptist in Matthew 11 as the greatest man who ever lived. John was one whose humble life goal was to decrease his personal self in order that others’ view of God would increase. John dies impoverished in a prison cell. Not a Hollywood ending, to be sure. But, according to Jesus, his life, poured out in service to God and others, was the most wonderful life ever lived.
"He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less" (John 3:30, NLT).
What You'll Find At The Top
Jack Higgens is a famous spy-thriller author who has written 60 novels. His most famous work is The Eagle Has Landed, which sold over 50 million copies. After all of his success, he was asked, “What do you wish that you’d known as a boy that you know now?” Higgens didn’t take long to answer. He said, "When you get to the top, there's nothing there."
Don't wait to get to the end of your life's pursuit only to discover you've been climbing the wrong mountain! The meaning and significance we seek won't be found atop the mountain of personal accomplishments. To be satisfied with what we find at the top we must follow the path God has called us to along the way. We must find His path up the hill by serving His purposes during our ascent. Then, and only then will we find meaning and fulfillment atop our mountain.
"Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight" (Psalm 119:35)
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Five Minutes on the Roof of the Earth
Jon Krakauer's life's pursuit was to successfully scale Mt. Everest. In May of 1996, he did just that. Disaster struck during the descent, and twelve of his team members were killed. For that his expedition became famous (or, infamous, as it were). The actual ascent became lost in tragedy. Nevertheless, he recalls it in the first pages of his bestselling book, INTO THIN AIR:
Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet. I understood on some dim, detached level that the sweep of earth beneath my feet was a spectacular sight. I'd been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, actually standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care. … I snapped four quick photos … then turned and headed down. My watch read 1:17 P.M. All told, I'd spent less than five minutes on the roof of the world.
Few of us will spend even five minutes on top of the world. But should we be so fortunate, we have no reason to believe that our experience will be any more fulfilling than Joh Krakauer's. That's because the meaning and significance we long for can't be found atop Mt. Everest, or in any other experience. It is only offered to us in the person of God Himself.
No matter how grand our goals or how spectacular our accomplishments or how hard we work to achieve them, they will fail to fulfill us in the way we hope. These are but vain idols, they will leave us, like Mr. Krakauer, standing there staring "absently at the vastness" below us.
"What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
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