The Eric Metaxas Show - Anne Morse

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Anne Morse is in the studio with a preview of a delightful book you'll want to read now as well as during the Christmas holiday season, "It's A Wonderful Life Advent Devotional," using lessons from that most popular movie.

Folks, welcome to the Eric Mattaxas show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Taxis show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Folks, welcome hour to. When we come back, I'm talking to Johns Merrick now, but for the rest of the hour today, we're talking to my dear friend Anne Morris, who has written a lovely book.

about the extraordinary classic film. It's a wonderful life. Very cheerful, very non-cynical. Nothing like John Zmirak and me in this conversation right now. Really just a wonderful thing. I also want to remind you, if you haven't gone to metaxistocotoccom to give to ADF, it's really de rigour. It is required of you to go to metaxisotocetot.com to help the folks at ADF. Don't say what can I do, because that's that's a good. something you can do and you must do. They need your help. They're fighting for you, for our religious liberties, all the stuff we're talking about. They're taking these things to the Supreme Court, and they're not making money. They're doing this at the, you know,

bargain basement prices because they actually believe in the truth. So please help them out. Alliance ofending Freedom, go to metaxis talk.com. John Zemirak, what else must we discuss? So we're talking about how the left uses psychological projection. And projection is something goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Satan told Eve that God was jealous of human beings and felt threatened by them and was trying to restrict them and tear them down. But in fact, that's what Satan was doing. Hitler and the Nazis, they got hold of this book, the protocols of the elders of Zion. It claimed there was a tiny cabal of conspirators who wanted to tyrannize the world and destroy traditional values.

and just wield absolute power. And it was true, except it wasn't the Jews. It was the Nazis without conspiracies. So they were projecting their own guilt onto the innocent Jews. The communists did the same thing. When they called everyone a fascist, liberal Democrats are fascists, monarchists, or fascists, it's because there is a political party

that's morally indistinguishable from the fascists. It's the communist party. Well, in our own time, the Democrats claimed that Donald Trump's election in 2016 was a threat to democracy that required a resistance. He was corruptly colluding with a hostile foreign power and you would abuse the government's power to persecute his opponents. Well, none of that was true of Donald Trump, but all of it is true of the former Joe Biden. He was corruptly colluding with a hostile foreign power. China. He is abusing the government's power to persecute his opponents.

He does require a resistance. So if you want to know what the left is planning to do, look at what they're accusing us of. And that's who you know, okay, that's what's coming down the pike next. And by the way, I think we have to say this from a spiritual perspective. This is so cynical, folks, this is what evil is. Evil doesn't advertise itself as evil. It accuses you of the very things it's trying to do, which is actually, it's like someone is raping someone. Somebody comes into the room.

And then the rapist says, this person just was raping me. Right. Now that it's worse than the rape itself, or at least it compounds, I should say, the rape itself, that it's so evil to accuse the one whom you were. abusing of abusing you. That is when it goes to the level of satanic evil. When you realize that it's not just someone doing something bad, it's someone doing something bad and then accusing their own victim of doing it to them. It's grotesque. So the Democrats who demonize these innocent people who took selfies at the Capitol on January 6th, they talk about them as if they were a terrorists, but it's not just Democrats. George W. Bush equated the January 6 protesters with the 9-11

hijackers. That is a masterpiece, a masterpiece of projection. I guess the only thing the 9-11 hijackers had in common with the January 6 protesters is that George W. Bush didn't protect America from either of them. Okay? That's the only common factor. I want to say when you mention January 6th. Folks, there's nothing more horrifying. My friend, Simone Gold, was sent to prison. This is

a professional young woman, a lawyer and a doctor who did nothing wrong, who was put in solitary confinement in a horrible jail. How long? Well, it was the

original thing was 60 days. I think they let her out after 40 days or something. But I don't think anybody can understand how wicked this is. In other words, if you ever had a case of someone who should not go to jail, if you know the story, but the point is the left is being, they're not just having a different point of view. They're being wicked. They want to punish. They want to crush those who would dare dissent.

And I'm telling you, folks, if you do not dissent, you're making a lot of dissent, you're making their job easier. You are helping them to crush others. So we're living in very, very difficult times. And it's necessary that we understand those folks who are not talking about January 6th, those Republicans, those conservatives who aren't talking about it, why do you want to hear anything they have to say? That's right. Why? If they don't have the courage to talk about this, shame on them. And they know that's right. Don't tell me about your tax cuts and your free market. if you don't think Americans should be free to protest if they think an election has been stolen, the game's over.

If the country doesn't offer that kind of freedom, I don't want it to have a strong defense and a strong economy because it's a threat to the world. If you're going to turn America into a cheap version of communist China, I'm not going to try to make it strong and prosperous because it's wicked. It's dangerous. The left wants to terrorize us. They want to frighten us so that we're afraid to show up at protests. We're afraid to pray outside abortion clinics because what if the FBI comes to my home?

So if we don't stand up for people like Mark Halk in Pennsylvania and Simone Gold and all the January 6th defendants, and if you want to follow their cases, Julie Kelly writes about them at American greatness almost every day. She's an American hero. Of course, she will never win a Pulitzer, because to win a Pulitzer, you have to lie about the Ukrainian famine or pretend that America was founded as a conspiracy of slave owners. So she won't win a Pulitzer, but her reward will be great in heaven for looking out for these innocent Americans being persecuted by a corrupt, wicked deep state that far too many Republicans, they just want to go along to get along, they don't want to get the stink eye at the country club. They are worse than useless. You know, John, yesterday I was speaking at Rob McCoy's church, Godspeak, up in Thousand Oaks, California. And what he said, because this applies to the Republicans that are useless, this applies to the pastors and the churches and the church leaders that are useless.

He said to them, he said, get them a copy of Eric's book letter to the American church. if they do not respond favorably to it, find another church. Folks, you have to get behind the people that are trying to live this out. There are pastors, there are Christian leaders, there are conservatives. They are putting their lives on the line as we ought to do for the truth, folks. If you believe in the truth, if you believe in the God of the Bible, you live it out. And if you're not doing that, folks, find someone else. who is doing that and support them, support them with your money, with your time, with your energy,

because we're in a battle right now. And the folks that haven't gotten this memo, who think that if I just ignore all of this evil, it'll go away and the reasonable people will get behind me, that's not going to happen. I promise you that that's not going to happen. We need to all do our part. Let's remember the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man is beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. First, a moderate Democrat passed his by on the road. And he looks over and he sees the guy. He says, well, that's not my problem. Then a never Trump Republican walks along the road and says, ooh, look, he's covered in blood. He might have COVID. He puts on his mask and scampers away. Then a deplorable drives up in his beat up red pickup

truck. And he sees the guy by the side of the road. And he takes him to an end. and cares for him. The January 6 defendants, unborn babies, trans teenagers, all the victims of the left, they are the man by the side of the road, and we have to be the good deplorable. John Zemaric, thank you. Folks will be right back. In case you haven't been paying attention, the Biden administration has caused a financial crisis and they have no clue how to fix it. Oil prices have skyrocketed, and when oil prices go up, the cost of transportation and shipping spikes leading the prices of goods. to rise. And when we're already seeing record inflation, that's the last thing we need. Our economy is in trouble and you need to take steps to protect yourself. If all your money is tied up in stocks,

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I want to tell you that we're doing a campaign with the Alliance Defending Freedom. These are the people who in court, often at the Supreme Court, defend our liberties. When people say, what can I do? What can I do? I promise you, they are fighting for you and for me. And what you can do is you can help them by going to metaxis talk.com, click on the banner and give them the most generous donation you possibly can. If you care about America, folks, you will be generous. They are fighting the battle. This is the least we can do. They're fighting for us, the Alliance Defending Freedom. Go to metaxis talk.com.com.com. You'll see the banner.

I'm begging you, help them out. Metaxistalk.com. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the program. If you know anything about me, you know that I had the privilege of working for Chuck Colson, eventually being friends with Chuck Colson. And I think of how much that period of time working for him meant to me, not least because I made so many friends who were also in that universe.

One of them is with me today. Her name is Anne Morris. Anne, it's just a joy to see you. Thank you very much. Now, look, the reason I have you here is not just because we're friends, but you have written a book that touches on one of the greatest movies of all time,

and it says, well, folks, you've heard of the movie, It's a Wonderful Life. It's just one of the best movies ever made. And, Anne, you've written a book titled, It's a Wonderful Life, Advent Devotional. You love this film so much that you decided to write a devotional based on this classic American film. So we've got to start at the beginning. We're in the world.

How did that happen? What is your relationship with this film that you felt that you could do that and then did it? Well, I was watching the film a few years ago, and I realized there were quite. a few scriptural messages in it. The overriding one is love your neighbor as yourself. And there are quite a few other ones, too, about sacrifice, even smaller messages such as how to pick out a good spouse. And of course, Mr. Potter, old man Potter, shows us what an evil life looks like at the end. We have no friends. You've got money, but you're not happy. So I started writing them down, and over the next few weeks, I came up with my favorite 26 messages and put them together into a devotional.

And then I invited a really great guy to write the forward to it. Forward by Dr. Jordan Peterson. You can read it right there. Ah, we're just kidding. No, this is actually funny because you're being so kind. But I wrote the forward to this book, It's a Wonderful Life, Advent Devotional by Anne Morse. because, Anne, you, I mean, this film is so amazing. I mean, of course, you've put it, you've kind of summed it up in this book.

But let's tell our audience, because there are going to be young people who are totally unfamiliar with this film. This is one of the greatest films ever made by one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived, Frank Capra. What an amazing, what an amazing filmmaker, Frank Capra, is. He made Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which is a film that I've written about. in my book, if you can keep it. I mean, this is a man who loved America, who had Christian values, but who lived at a time when you could put that in a film, which is kind of extraordinary. I mean, in a film, that would become a classic.

Well, most people would say, it's a wonderful life, is not a Christian film. Right. But if you go to Frank Kapper's autobiography, he makes the point of saying, I want every man, woman, and child who sees my films to understand. that God loves them. And he goes on in that vein. So what's amazing is that people don't realize that. I met up with somebody at the It's a Wonderful Life Festival, which takes place every December in Seneca Falls, New York, which bears a very striking resemblance to Bedford Falls. And somebody I talked to who actually got kind of upset when I talked about my devotional and the fact that he, Frank Capra,

put a lot of Christian messages into it. It's like people who love the Chronicles of Narnia and have no idea that it's an allegory of the Christ story. So they love the movie. They may not like Christians very much, but they love the movie. Well, because people love truth. They just don't know who it is, who is truth. And sometimes if you give him a name, they say, nah, that can't be right.

Well, yes, it actually can be right. and it is right. So Frank Capra, he was a man of faith. He was a man. I write in the forward to this book, It's a Wonderful Life Advent Devotional, about how he, as a little kid, coming to this country,

how his father pointed to the Statue of Liberty. And so he had this love of this country and a love of freedom, and he expressed these things in his films just so gloriously. And they're fantastic films. Now, we know they're not officially Christian films because Kevin Sorbo is not in them.

All right? So when Kevin Sorbo is in the film, then it's officially allowed to be called a Christian film. But this was made in 19, what, 39? No, right after the war. After the war. 46.

46. So what is your history with this film? Because you, you know, you've gone to the next level. I mean, I love the film, but you go to this, It's a Wonderful Life. What's it called? Festival.

Yeah. When did this film become that important to you that you just decided to, you know, know, do things like that. When I watch films that are really good like this, I sometimes try and imagine what happened to them afterwards. What happened to George Bailey after he came back from Pottersville, that alternate universe? Did he stay satisfied with his life, or after a few days did he think, well, you know, yeah, I have my family, but I'm still stuck here in Bedford Falls. and I ended up writing a novel that takes place 70 years later, his grandson, who's named after him, has forgotten the lessons of the family.

And he is a real estate tycoon in New York who is not very nice to the poor. He represents, he's become potter is what he's become. And he needs the angel Clarence to come back down and straighten his life out the way he did with his grandfather. Well, I want to be clear. So you've written a novel called Bedford Falls, the story continues. Yes. Bedford Falls, the story continues. Kind of key, folks.

Bedford Falls is if you want to know more about this, you can read that. But you, I should have said this when we started. The cover of the book is, of course, a picture of Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed. And the little girl who, plays Zuzu. Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings. She plays Zuzu. Okay. You have met Zuzu.

Yeah. She has been kind enough to sell hundreds of copies of my first book because she travels about the country throughout the year going to fairs and things and speaking about what it was like to work with Jimmy Stewart. And, of course, she was in a lot of other movies, too, as a child. but we meet we've met up a couple times at Seneca Falls she's a lovely woman I enjoy visiting with her and so what is she now in her 70s I'm gonna try to think she's about 80 okay and her real name is not Zuzu that's the role she plays in the film her real name is Carolyn Grimes G-R-I-M-E-S Carolyn with a K so Carolyn Grimes you you have met her and it so every year she goes to Seneca Falls for this festival. And people love to see her. Oh, who wouldn't?

It's just amazing. Now, is she a woman of faith? Yes. Yes, she is. Very faithful. That's pretty cool. So Zuzu became a Christian folks. Headline, Zuzu was born again.

It's really, it's just so heartwarming. Yeah. Well, so let's get into it for folks who don't know the plot of It's a Wonderful Life. What is the shortest version of the plot that you? you can give. It opens on Christmas Eve with the entire town of Bedford Falls, praying for George Bailey, who's in trouble, although that is not quite identified. And an angel comes down, he sent down to try to help George Bailey, who's considering suicide, to see that he's really lived a wonderful life. And then you get the story of his childhood, the fact that he wants to go off

to college, and then end up building skyscrapers, a hundred stories, and bridges a mile wide and so on and so on. And his father dies that night, and he has to stay in Bedford Falls to run the building and loan, which his father had started. He doesn't have to, but he knows what will happen if he leaves, that the meanest man in town, old man potter, as he's called, will basically be running everybody's life and not in a good way. And George spends his life trying to,

keep old man potter from from harming the people of that for false. And let's be clear, old man potter is a type and shadow of George Soros. And I'm really not kidding. It's fascinating how these classic stories resonate into our own lives. Because we're all supposed to see that God wants us to be like the Jimmy Stewart character in this film and how we all hear these negative voices that say your life doesn't matter, you can't achieve your dreams, or whatever it is, and how this film, which did not do that spectacularly well when it came out, became one of the classics of our time, because it does resonate so powerfully. And we see it being played out over and over and over again. Just 30 seconds left, so you were giving us the plot. Oh, well,

in the end, his Uncle Billy, George's Uncle Billy, who's a bit simple. has managed to lose $8,000 of the building and loans of money. And George, instead of going to his good friend Sam Wainwright, who is rich, goes to the man who hates him, old man Potter, who says, not only am I not going to help you, I'm calling the police and have you arrested. Okay, that's a cliffhanger. When we come back, Anne Morris, more with Anne Morris about It's a Wonderful Life,

Advent Devotional, with a forward by Eric McAxas. Tell me, Eric, why is really fast, So Successful at Lowering or Eliminating Pain. I'm often asked that question. The owners of Relief Factor tell me they believe our bodies were designed to heal. That's right, designed to heal. And I agree with them. So the doctors who formulated Relief Factor for them selected the four best ingredients,

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Go to Relieffactor.com or call 800 for Relief to find out about this offer. Feel the difference. Looking to my friend Anne Morris about her new book, It's a Wonderful Life, Advent Devotional, with a forward by yours truly. And, Anne, you've written the novel we've talked about it on this program. It's Bedford Falls. The story continues, which imagines what happens after the end of the movie. But let's get back to, you're giving us a synopsis for those folks who haven't had the joy of becoming familiar with this amazing film.

It's a wonderful life. So George Bailey goes to Old Man Potter. And why does he go to Pott? I don't even remember. Because he's the richest man in town. He's the only one who could loan him $8,000, which, of course, in 1946, is worth a great deal more than it is today. And he goes off to a bridge, and he's thinking of jumping and, you know, ending his life, giving his wife and kids his life insurance. and then the angel Clarence jumps in so that George will rescue him instead of drowning himself. And George believes that he's wasted his life and things would have been better if he had never lived.

And to teach him that his life really had been very worthwhile, Clarence puts him into a sort of, what is the term, an alternate universe, Pottersville, to show him what the town would be like and the lives of the people would be like. if he had never lived. And of course, it's terrible. People all are, well, they're stuck in their, you know, crummy little houses that Old Man Potter built. There are a lot of bad businesses that don't belong in a nice small town. And people are just unhappy. And they just come into the bars to get drunk fast because there's nothing to live for. And he real, and his brother is dead because he wasn't there to be. save him. So lots of things would have been different. And his wife is now the librarian instead of, you know, a happy mother and wife. So he realizes that he has lived a wonderful life and begs Clarence to get him back to Bedford Falls, which he does. And he celebrates with his wife and kids. And the townspeople have been going around with a big basket collecting all the money they can when they find out

what has happened so that he doesn't have to go to jail. The money has been replaced. One thing that I found interesting was that Frank Capra was desperately poor. His family was a very poor immigrant family. And his, I think it's not surprising that for him, that most evil person you could have on screen is somebody who was not kind to the poor, someone who takes advantage of the poor. He was willing to throw people out of their houses if they couldn't pay the rent. And you may remember the scene where George's father says, I can't do that. Some of these people have children. And Potter says, they're not my children. So, and, you know, in the Bible, it says God is angry every day at the things the wicked do. And I put that in that devotional

because I thought that's just perfect for that. He does hate the wicked and the way they pray on the innocent. Well, it's, it's amazing to me really to think about how Capra in his own way, he's a lot like Dickens in the previous century. You know, he has a social conscience. He cares about the poor. He talks about these kinds of things. But what's interesting is it doesn't make him a socialist.

On the contrary, it makes him pro-American, pro-Christian. He's able to tell that side of the story from. the actual perspective. And Dickens did it, of course, in his novels. And Capra did it, I guess, mostly in this film, It's a Wonderful Life, but in his other films as well that he saw, he always had a heart for the underdog. He understood that, I mean, it's kind of funny to think that Jimmy Stewart plays

Mr. Smith, and Mr. Smith goes to Washington, and then he plays this role. there's something about Jimmy Stewart, the good guy, but who has the, there's the dark side where he can lose hope and become bitter and angry. And you really need to be encouraged. We all need to be encouraged. But so it's a story for everybody. And so I'm just glad that you're using the, a devotional, you know, to familiarize people with this amazing film. I still can't believe you know Zuzu. I really can't believe that. Well, but let's get into some of the specifics, Ann, in this devotional. What are some of the things that you touch on in this book?

One of my favorite of the devotions has to do with one of the smaller messages of the film, one that could be easily overlooked, and that is the mother of George Bailey versus the mother of Mary Hatch. Mary's mother wants her to marry Sam Wainwright. When George comes over to visit her, she's, Sam Wainwright calls her. What Mary's mother doesn't realize is that George would make a perfect husband.

He's got all the good qualities. He's hardworking. He takes care of his mother. He's honest. He's got a sense of humor. Sam Wainwright is a nice guy. But when he calls Mary, remember, he's canoodling with another girl. Canoodling, folks.

You heard it on a family program. Yes, go ahead. And you have to wonder what kind of a husband. he would have made. But Mrs. Bailey, George's mother, takes a look at Mary. See, not only is she beautiful, but she has an excellent character and that she would make a perfect wife for George. So she's in there trying to urge George to go over to Mary's house and says she's the kind of girl that can help you find the answers. And of course, they do end up married. And she shows how committed she is to the way George wants to live when she's willing to give up her honeymoon

and holds up that $2,000 in the bank that they were going to use on their honeymoon and uses it to bail out the building and loan, which would have gone under. This is, gosh, there's so much. We'll be right back talking to Anne Morris. The book is It's a Wonderful Life, Advent Devotional. With the overturn of Roe v. Wade, We'll kiss just as before. Lots of companies are coming out saying they'll pay for employee abortion travel and expenses. Most of you've heard about some of these companies.

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or you can go to MyPillow.com. Click on the radio listener square and use the promo code Eric. This offer will not last very long. They're known to sell quickly. So order now with promo code Eric at mypillow.com. Promocode Eric at mypillow.com. Folks, welcome back. We're talking about the film.

It's a Wonderful Life. And I'm talking right now to my friend Anne Morris, who's written a book, an Advent Devotional titled It's a Wonderful Life, Advent Devotional, with a forward by Eric Mataxis. I don't know how they got him, the author of Bonhofer. He's so busy.

He has no time for this. But evidently, there's something about this film that is just so amazing. And you were just talking a moment ago about some of the... the life lessons. I mean, so often you meet people of faith to say, I want to be involved in the arts and I want to.

Frank Kampra is the gold standard that he was in the mainstream in Hollywood able to communicate beautiful life lessons, God lessons, through mainstream film. And you were just sharing about, you know, whom to pick as a spouse and character and that guy. So what are some of the other lessons that you have in this book? Well, think that there are very few lessons in that movie that we cannot apply to our own life.

And one of them is, do we ask God what he wants for our lives before we make up our own decisions? And remember at the beginning of the film, as George Bailey is walking Mary Hatch home from the dance after they'd fallen into the swimming pool, he brags to her, I'm going to be making, you know, skyscrapers, you know, 100 stories high and bridges a mile long, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I'm going to Europe. and that very night his father dies. He did not consult God with his plans. He made his plans on his own. God had given him many gifts, you know,

creativity and intelligence, and he was able to use them, and God wanted him to use those gifts in Bedford Falls. Remember, he built the swimming pool designed and built the swimming pool under the high school auditorium. And he built all those houses to get people out of public

slums. And one of my favorite scenes is when Mr. Martini is so happy, and they're helping him move, and they've got all the kids in George's car along with the goat and the duck, and they take them over there and celebrate, you know, their new home. And then who should show up, but Sam Wainwright with his fur-draped wife saying, would you like to go to Florida with us? Well, of course George can't afford that. And he immediately forgets that he has done so much good for that town as he watches Sam and his wife drive off in their fancy car. And if you look at that scene, on either side of the car are rows of the houses that George has built and made possible for the lower income people to live in.

And I had never seen that way until I was working on the devotional. So there's the evidence of what your life is worth. I mean, it's, again, this applies to all of us because there are the, these dark voices in the culture whispered in our ears about, you know, what we're supposed to, what we think we're supposed to do with our lives. And God is trying to tell us the truth. He's trying to use us. And the story of It's a Wonderful Life, it's just one of the most extraordinary summations, like a fable of what really matters. And I can hardly think of a film that does what this film does.

It's funny that it became such a classic. Now, how did that happen? Because when the film came out, this is another lesson, right? Like, initially, the film goes nowhere. So everybody would say, well, nobody's interested in films like this. But God had a plan. And the film gets played. How did it become so famous?

Somebody forgot to renew the copyright on the film, and that meant television stations could run it 20 times every Christmas. You could hardly turn the channel without, finding it on every channel around Christmas. So Americans became very familiar with it. And oddly enough, that's the first time Zuzu saw the film. She was a little girl. She was taken to the premiere where she promptly fell asleep because she was a little girl.

And she saw it when it was on television. And that was the first time she'd seen it all the way through. So people just fell in love with it. And then the copyright was renewed, so it's only shown once or twice now every Christmas. but I think, yeah, it is very popular now because of that accident. Isn't that amazing? I mean, you talk about God works all things together for good for those that love the Lord. I mean, here you have somebody forgetting to renew a copyright,

a huge screw-up. That leads to the film becoming an American classic. And let's be honest, touching innumerable lives. How many people have had their lives touched by this in a moment of loneliness or despair or hopelessness, get this message of the film? There was somebody who worked in the Reagan administration, who was about to commit suicide. I cannot remember his name anymore, but he wrote about this. He saw the film and realized that his life had value, and he did not commit suicide.

I wish I could remember his name. One of the other themes that I expound on in this has to do with friendship. George Bailey, once he makes a friend, That's his friend for life. Was it Bud McFarlane? It might have been. Bud McFarlane was involved in the Iran-Contra thing, and I think that he's the person you're referring to.

Yeah. And Zuzu has gotten many letters from people along those lines. My life was going badly, and then I saw the movie, and things changed. So the movie is still having a tremendous effect on people, even though it's, what, 75, 76 years old. The book talks about four. friendship. And a lot of people today, as I was trying to think what I would say in that devotion, they move away. We move around a lot in America. People start getting successful,

and they start dropping friends that they had in high school or caught at college. And maybe it's not deliberate, but it happens. You have shiny new friends that are also very successful and rich. But then something happens, say, one of your children gets arrested or dies of a drug overdose. You don't go to the new shiny friends. You go back to your old friends who know you, and they're the ones that can comfort you. So his lesson is, you know, every, you know, old man like, um, the, Mr. Gower, the druggist that he saved from poisoning a child. Yeah. Yeah. He's an old man. Even when George is a, is a boy. Right. He's, they're friends. They're good friends. And then, uh, Mr. Martini, who runs the pub,

um, gets angry at, uh, Welch, the school teacher's husband when he slugs, George. George for being rude to his wife. And he said, you just hit my best friend. Get out of here. You know, children are fond of him. Violet Bick, the town, bad girl. When she wants to start over in New York, she goes to George Bailey, who is surely aware of her reputation, just as everybody else in town is. But he treats her with kindness and respect.

And she says, I'm so glad I know you, George Bailey. This is so beautiful, folks are going to go to break. final segment coming up with Anne Morris. You can spell Morris. Anne Morris is the author of It's a Wonderful Life Advent Devotional. What a great film. We'll be right back. Folks, welcome back. We're talking to Anne Morris, who has a book called It's a Wonderful Life Advent Devotional. The lessons, amazing lessons, biblical lessons from this great classic American film. Any final thoughts? Any final lessons that we haven't covered or touched on? We are all here to try to improve our towns.

I can't think of the word I mean. To preserve and protect our towns. George Bailey protects his town from Old Man Potter. And he improves the town by building all those houses and helping people in any way he can. There's also the matter of jealousy. I think he's a little bit jealous of Sam. Right. God had his plans for Sam, which were almost identical to what George Bailey thinks he wants in his life.

He goes to college. He gets to travel. Remember, he's calling from London. Right. He sends that telegram saying, give George $25,000 if he needs it. You know, he's wealthy. and George is the one stuck back in Bedford Falls. But again, all things work together for good, for them that love God.

Sam is there to bail George out when he gets into trouble. George's role is to stay in Bedford Falls and protect people. And Sam's role is to help George in any way that he can. What is the line from the film? I never remember the exact line, but the... H-Ha. No, no, no, I was just going to get to that. No, the line about, you know, the richest man is the one who has the most friends type of thing.

Oh, yeah. That's the message he gets at the very, very end when the bell rings. And there's the book Tom Sawyer in which Clarence had written, remember George, no man is a failure who has friends. And that is very true in his life. His friends saved him in the end. And they were glad to do so because he had done. done so much for them over the years. And they all knew that he'd sacrificed education and travel

because it was more important for him to honor his father's business and to take care of the people of Bedford Falls. Well, it's amazing. His brother toasts him at the end of the film, and he says, a toast to my big brother, George, the richest man in town. It's just so moving, because we know these things are true. This is true. This is truth. And we need in this dark world to hear this over and over again to remind each other of what is true. Because everything tells us the opposite.

And so it's amazing to me that Frank Kappa managed to make a film like this. I don't remember where the script came from. Was it based on a book or did some? There's a very small book. that a man had written, was not able to get it published, and so he simply sent the story to a lot of friends at Christmas. And one of them got it into the hands of Frank Capra, and he said, this is the story I've been looking for all my life.

I mean, can we believe this? This is, it really is, if you want to know how God works, in this interview here we've been talking about. It's just these extraordinary ways that God works, using the mistake of somebody not renewing a copyright to blast this message, of hope to millions and millions and millions of people resulting in it becoming a classic. It's a wonderful life, obviously, the film.

Well, Anne, I'm just so glad you wrote this book. I'm glad you wrote your previous book about Bedford Falls. I'm glad that we got to talk about it today. The book, folks, It's a Wonderful Life Advent Devotional by Anne Morris with a forward by Eric Metaxis. That can't be right. Anne Morris, God bless you. Thanks for coming into the studio.

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