@HomewithDean – Homily 05/07

I’m going to call these thoughts: The Difference Between Making It and Making DoOne of my all-time favorite movies is It’s a Wonderful Life. No surprise, it’s one of the world’s most beloved films and one of the American Film Institute’s Top 100 Movies of All Time. It’s hard to keep track of all the life lessons in It’s a Wonderful Life but one of my favorite scenes is where George and his wife Mary—newly married—are supposed to be heading off for the honeymoon of a lifetime. This part of the film is set during the Great Depression and that afternoon there’s a run on the bank, and George and Mary painfully decide to use their honeymoon savings to keep the Bailey Building and Loan solvent. They forfeit their dream to stay home and take care of other people. Why? Because sometimes life really sucks. When George is done with that awful day he finds that Mary has transformed a desperately run down abandoned house into a magical space for their wedding night. There are posters of far away lands in the windows, flowers, candles, music playing from a phonograph that is also turning a spit with two chickens roasting over the fire in the fireplace. Mary Bailey has faced a sad, difficult day and made do.I feel her. It feels like I’ve been making do my entire life. But instead of resenting it, I’ve come to the opinion that making do is just about the most important skill a person can master. I’ve also witnessed making do elevated to nothing less than an art form. Making do is making the best out of what you’ve got. It’s about mixing limited resources into a recipe, the flavor of which becomes greater than the sum of its parts.In my opinion there are at least three reasons why mastering the art of making do is so important. First, we all want to be happy and fulfilled. Second, we all have limited resources. And third, life is beautiful but life is never perfect. Some part of life will always be painful, always be difficult, and always suck.Making do is about finding all the good and taking responsibility for the all bad. By