On Tuesday, the American Film Institute selected their top 100 Most Inspiring Films of All Time.  I love these lists and always watch the television special just so I can scream at the TV when they pick Citizen Kane or Gone With The Wind as the Greatest Whatever of All time.

Although this year I think AFI did a pretty good job in their selection. The committee chose It's a Wonderful Life as the number one most inspiring film ever. And at the time, I nodded approvingly at the TV, because this is a movie I love.

[To be completely honest though, I was kind of schocked that Braveheart didn't even crack the Top 100. What moment in film is more inspiring than Mel Gibson screaming FREEDOM. Also, Karate Kid should have been #2 not #98. But whatever.]

During the Presentation, the Institute usually gets actors to comment on the films that make the list. This is a process I always find a little annoying, because the actors inevitably act like the movies are really their lives. (Note to Ben Kingsley, just because you play a Holocaust Surivovor in a movie, does not necessarily mean you survived the Holocaust.)

And in discussing It's a Wonderful Life, several of the actors commented that the theme of the movie was that every life is important. Believing that if George Bailey had never been born, the townspeople of Bedford Falls would have been destroyed by the Banker, Mr. Potter.

However, I don't really think that is the lesson of It's a Wonderful Life. To me, the lesson of It's a Wonderful Life is You Reap What You Sow.

George Bailey sowed love and compassion into the lives of his family and the townspeople of Bedford Falls. He continually sacrified his own life for the lives of others. And when George Bailey's own life ran into a wall, and he didn't think he could make it anymore, he reaped back all the love he had sown.

Which takes me to my point, and the best sermon I ever heard at City Bible Church.  About 10 years ago, I heard a pastor from Northern Ireland speak on the principle of reaping what you sow. And his sermon has always stuck with me. He shared this advice: Whatever you want in your own life, first give that to others. If you want friends in your life, be friendly. If you want grace, then be gracious to others. If you desire patience, then be patient. And most importantly, if you want love in your life, then love others.

And to me that's what makes It's a Wonderful Life so inspiring. George Bailey reaped what he sowed.

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