It's A Wonderful Life!

As I looked at my life these past few months I began to feel a kinship to George Bailey in the holiday movie classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

 From his youth up, George lived a life of helping others.  As a young man he gave up his long anticipated dreams of traveling and attending college after his father unexpectedly died.  Instead he sent his brother to college, and took over his father’s business to ensure that honest hardworking families could realize their dreams of owning a decent place to live and raise their children.  He even gave up his honeymoon money to protect the interest of those families who would have been taken advantage of by the hateful and wealthy Mr. Potter during the town’s financial crisis.  When George’s blundering uncle unknowingly gives the company’s deposit monies to Mr. Potter, Potter, in an attempt to destroy George, keeps the money and takes out a warrant for his arrest accusing him of embezzling company funds.  It is at this point that George contemplates suicide and later wishes he had never been born believing that everyone would have been better off if he’d never existed.

With the help of his guardian angel, George discovers that his life really did make a difference.  Had he not been born, Bedford Falls would have become Potter’s Field.  His brother would have died as a child and an entire transport of soldiers would have died because his brother would not have been there to save them.  Uncle Billy would have been in an insane asylum; his mother would have become a bitter old widow; the druggist would have gone to prison for accidental poisoning of a patient; and the honest hardworking families would have been subjected to living in Potter’s slum houses.  George also learned that the people he helped didn’t take him for granted.  They and even his old rival classmate and his brother came to his rescue when they heard he was in trouble.

My personal version of Mr. Potter had for a moment blinded me to the truth that God had used me to make a difference in the lives of those He sent me to serve.  The very people I was sent to serve showed their love and appreciation for me through acts of service, gifts, dinner, and well wishes.  Many of them didn’t even know I was in crisis.  I will probably never make the Forbes 500 list but because of friendships formed by the Spirit of God I am one of the richest women in the world.

CHRISTMAS EVE 2012

Its Christmas Eve.  I haven't posted in a long time, even now I struggle at what to write.  The latter half of this year has been very stressful for me, yet God has brought me through. 

Aside from personal crisis, I lost two friends to cancer.  One of those friends was a young woman from work, and the other was a dear friend that I served in ministry with.

Geneva Smith-Anderson and I met in the summer of 91 through an outreach jail & prison ministry we were apart of.  In the following years our ministry expanded from conducting worship services in the County Jail to conducting worship services at the Women's Correctional facility in Kankakee. We also did a weekly radio broadcast.  In 2000 she continued to minister to the incarcerated  as I transitioned to providing aftercare ministry to those who received Christ through her ministry.

After she and her husband moved to Indiana to pastor a young congregation, we continued to stay in touch through phone calls, emails, and visits.

She was the god-mother to all of my grandchildren.  Several hours after Geneva went home to be with Jesus, my youngest daughter (whom Geneva stood with me in prayer for a safe and healthy pregnancy) gave birth (at 36 weeks) to a 6 lb 4 oz baby boy.

Although I miss her, I celebrate her, a life well lived for the Lord; and rejoice that she is in His presence.

Favorite phrases and scriptures of Geneva:

"To God be the Glory!"

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths."

"God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!"