Lead a Wonderful Life

Every family has their traditions over the Holidays. Growing up, Christmas Eve became the time my immediate family celebrated ours. It usually involved making a bunch of fun snacks that we would eat instead of dinner. Then we’d open presents, and after, watch a Christmas movie while eating a Friendly’s ice cream roll.

One year, my dad introduced us to the 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Though I was young and not used to watching things in black and white, I liked it. And it continues to be a movie that I watch almost yearly. However, as I get older, I am finding I appreciate the movie more and more. Almost every time I watch it, I come away with another insight to life or recognize another layer in the story.

This year, while watching, I realized “It’s a Wonderful Life,” illustrates something important about leadership. If you aren’t familiar with the movie—without any spoilers—it follows the life of George Bailey. In the first part of the movie we see him grow up to become a young man who wants to travel the world. His plans change though when circumstances force him to take on the family business.

Interestingly, his family business is a “building and loan,” which serves the financial needs of the community—enabling people to develop their businesses or build homes, without the high interest rates of a bank. By taking over the family business, George becomes an important leader in his community. Yet, like all good leaders, he isn’t without his troubles.

First, George faces the possibility of losing the Bailey Building and Loan in the stock market crash of 1929. Then, he is tempted by his adversary, the banker, to sell-out for a more comfortable career. But all of this is nothing compared to the crisis he faces, almost two-thirds of the way into the movie, that makes him question the value of his life. Thankfully for George, an unexpected visitor arrives.

With the help of his guardian angel (literally), George is given a new perspective on what his life has really meant to the world. He is shown that the things he did because they were “the right thing to do,” greatly improved and changed the lives of those around him. A life he had considered wasted—full of unmet dreams and sacrifices—was really, as his guardian angel tells him, “A Wonderful Life.”

This movie reminded me that when a leader is fully living out his/her calling and responsibilities to uplift those in their care, they will often feel like they are failing. It will feel like they aren’t making a difference at all. But though their life may not look successful according to our culture, their work is often the most important of all.

In our world, there is a very real evil at work. One only need to turn on the news and hear stories about shootings, terrorism, and ISIS, to agree. But what we often don’t see or want to admit, is that those same powers of darkness are present—even in small ways—in our lives too.

A leader’s job is to fight these powers of evil in their spheres of influence: to empower those who have been beaten down, to build bridges where there is division, and to bring vision and direction where there is confusion. And when they do this successfully, that is when the true battle begins.

Though it may sound cliche or like something out of a 1940s movie, evil doesn’t want good to win. This is why we see so many leaders succumb to temptation and corruption. If evil can’t uproot the good that a leader does, evil attempts to uproot and destroy the leader.

In It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey is almost defeated. Battle after battle has left him feeling like a failure. He is so beaten down that he cannot see all the battles he has won. This is the story of so many of the unsung heroes of our world. Because often they are portrayed in movies or by our media as the ones in the spotlight, we forget that our greatest leaders are usually in the shadows, and that they are some of our most tested warriors.

If you are leader who is feeling like a failure this season, if you are questioning your effectiveness, know that you are fighting battles you can’t see. If your life looks nothing like you thought it would, and yet you are making a difference in the lives around you, know that you are leading “a Wonderful Life.” And lastly, if you are like George and can’t see your “wins,” I pray that God will bless you with someone who will be your guardian angel—someone who will remind you.