Christianity in a Nutshell

Can you express the Christian paradox in a nutshell? Here's a try: Sacrifice or self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice (paradoxically) leads to life, sacrifice to death. Cross (self-sacrifice) leads to Resurrection. Sacrificing others (to preserve yourself) leads to death. Here is our freedom: I put before you life and death; choose life.

I marvel at Frank Capra's depiction of that dynamic in It's A Wonderful Life. Self-sacrifice leading to life. (Giving up leading to gift.) We first see it in George's act of self-sacrifice to save his little brother from drowning. George loses his hearing, but his brother is saved. George tells Mr. Gauer he would have poisoned his customer with the wrong prescription, and for that bit of information he gets boxed on his bad ear, but the customer is saved. George sacrifices his trip to college when his dad dies, but saves the saving and loan from Mr. Potter's clutches. George again stays on when his brother gets married and moves away, but George receives his own wonderful wife in return. George skips his honeymoon because he spends his cash on his bank's customers, saving them and the bank in the process. George wrestles with Potter's offer to co-opt him, and finally gives up the vision of a big house and salary, turning Potter down flat. Immediately on arriving home he hears his wife whisper that she is pregnant!

George spends the war years collecting rubber and selling war bonds, running the savings and loan, and celebrating with bread and wine new loans leading to houses for the "working poor" of his town. And, of course, the incident that leads to Clarence's intervention -- the theft of the bank's deposit by Mr. Potter -- has George contemplating suicide to get the insurance money that will avoid "scandal" and Potter's goal of snuffing out the savings and loan. The prospect of that extreme act of self-sacrifice (suicide) finally brings divine intervention, which poignantly turns the tables so that George saves Clarence in yet another act of self-sacrifice. The result you know, a wonderful re-union at home in which the entire village, including the bank examiner, ante up the funds needed to outflank Potter and save the bank.

I can't think of a better example of the Christian paradox: lose your life and you will gain it.

Heading into Lent's time of self-sacrifice, of "giving up," shouldn't that give us encouragement? For, we can't even imagine what God has in store for those who love Him.