I won’t take it for granted that everyone has seen, “It’s A Wonderful life” but it is a classic that even after watching it many times I find myself tearing up at certain sections of the movie. Who hasn’t wiped a tear off his or her cheek when Clarence gets his wings! It’s a story of how your life is so important to others no matter how you sometimes feel you had failed and you have no idea what effect you had on others’ lives.

We can at times feel that his life is too difficult, too tragic, or too sorrowful to continue on.

Ephesians 5:15-16, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

I recently listened to Matthew Wests new song, “Wonderful Life” which gave me the title for this message.

Ron from Houston, Texas, Spent three years fightin’ ALS

If you knew all that he’s been through, You’d hardly say he’s blessed

But smilin’ through a phone call, He said “Let me tell you, friend

This life ain’t always wonderful, But what a wonderful life it’s been”

It’ll send you flyin’ high, It’ll bring you to your knees

It’s the heartbreak and the happiness, And everything between

It’s the laugh until it hurts, It’s the hurt until you cry

Can’t have one without the other, It’s how you know that you’re alive

In this broken and beautiful, Gone mad and magical, Awfully wonderful life

It’s a mountain and a valley, It’s a cradle and a grave

It’s a blessing and a battle, And it’s on any given day

It’s messy and imperfect, It’s a thief and it’s a gift

Yeah, this life ain’t always wonderful, But what a wonderful life it is!

Ron went home to Jesus, Got the call the other day

I sat and cried and thought about, The words I heard him say

I know there is a Heaven, Waitin’ for us after this

This life ain’t always wonderful, But this life ain’t all there is

No, this life ain’t always wonderful, But this life ain’t all there is!

My life like so many here has had some fantastic highs and some lows that if it wasn’t for Jesus in my life and the promise, He has for all of us I wouldn’t be standing here today.

Listen I don’t have all the answers but I put my life and faith in the only one who has the answers though He has that absolute right to not to let me know the answer to biggest questions we have in this world.

I do have an understanding of some things such as why are His people being martyred on a daily basis, John 15:18-19, “Jesus said that they hated, If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

John 16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

I can also understand the outlook we as those that have Jesus in our lives have will be different for those who don’t have or believe in Christ, Ephesians 2:10-12, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:”

I even know why death and suffering in is our world, Genesis 2:15-17, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” 

That doesn’t mean that I may accept those hardships with a smile on my face or without getting mad at those events that break my heart…but they will never break my spirit!

THIS LIFE INSN’T ALWAYS WONDERFUL, BUT A WONDERFUL LIFE IT’S BEEN!

In the movie “Jumanji, the Next Level”, Danny DeVito starts out as a bitter, sarcastic, old man and makes the statement to Spencer that “it doesn’t get any better” and “Getting Old Sucks?” but we get to see how the realization of how his bitterness had destroyed his relationship with Milo for so many years. He tells Spencer then that “Getting old is a gift, I forget that sometimes, but it is”

THIS LIFE INSN’T ALWAYS WONDERFUL, BUT A WONDERFUL LIFE IT’S BEEN!

Psalms 23 so completely explains the provision God has given to us when life isn’t so wonderful.

Psalms 23:1 “A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.” 

THIS LIFE INSN’T ALWAYS WONDERFUL, BUT A WONDERFUL LIFE IT’S BEEN!

My view of God has changed completely over the years and not because of the good times. It’s the struggles, it’s the hurts, it’s the pain that has made me into the man of God I am today!

I have learned of Gods tremendous value He has place on each of us…

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.:

Isa 41:10, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

THIS LIFE INSN’T ALWAYS WONDERFUL, BUT A WONDERFUL LIFE IT’S BEEN!