"It's a Wonderful Life"

As I enjoy viewing the sunrise from the bluff, the calm sea, a clear-blue sky, and orange haze hovering over the port belies the time of year (well, at least for those not used to our Southern California Christmases). However, events of the past week—personal issues, a cancelled trip to Israel and multiple illnesses—have been all too reminiscent of seasons of uncertainty for me . . . but have also brought—as the lyrics announce—comfort and joy. The numerous events the Mission involves itself help so many and bring joy and smiles to those in need. However, this Christmas week (as it often does) has supplied mixed emotions for me, as I am no stranger to melancholy; a symptom for many whose life-experiences and memories (or the lack of them) may not allow the happiness of the season to permeate their present psyche.

While preparing to speak to the men in our New Life Program—a one-year residential rehab program—I reviewed a book and articles on being an adult child of an alcoholic, or ACA, as it’s commonly termed. I made notes about the all-too-common feelings of inadequacies; the uncertainty of what normal is; the emptiness from a lack of established family traditions . . . the list goes on. It was interesting that several articles listed serving at a homeless shelter as one of the healing activities for this season. I recalled a past Christmas after my mother-in-law passed away, when our family decided to help serve meals at Martha’s Village & Kitchen in Indio, CA, near our home in Palm Desert (not knowing that the first Rescue Mission that I would lead a few years later was located a few blocks away). We also returned for a time to the more liturgical denomination of my wife’s youth; we both sought the quiet and reverence of the worship tradition we had growing up and that reminded us of her mom, Pat.

But instead of sharing the more clinical realities of our common issues and a few helpful solutions to the feelings this season bring, I was led to share glimpses of my own life-history and dysfunctions. I wept as I told of the pain and brokenness that made up much of my youth, and memories which continue to visit me occasionally. I shared about how the movie, "It’s a Wonderful Life” has been a seasonal encouragement for me, as it shows the power of prayer and unrealized friendships; that life with all its grief, no matter how difficult, is still worth living.

Two verses from the Bible came to me as well . . . Isaiah 53:3: “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Because Christ knew grief, I can embrace my own and allow Him to bear it along with His—which is what He came to this earth to do for me. But it didn’t end there, as 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 encourages us, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!”

As the men began to recognize me as a fellow sufferer of grief, they also saw the reconciliation and leadership that God brought out of my life experiences and into a place of service to them and others who are in need of the same reconciliation that I had become so desperate for. Additionally, that it is okay to grieve, but they have a family here at the Mission to grieve with them and to help bear them up . . .

Would you, like the men and women in our New Life Program, allow God’s love, His gift of Christ, and the family or community that now surrounds you, embrace you with peace and grace—at this time and always. Have a Blessed Christmas!