The year is 1940, the place is a hospital bed. A man is in it with a dangerous disease. He made his living directing films. He just had his first big hit, but now he's wondering if he will be doing anything ever again.
A little man walks into the room and makes no introduction, he just sits on a bed across from him in silence.
A couple minutes later, the little spectacled man accused the director of being a coward.
Before he could react, the little man said, "Do you hear that man in there?"
The voice of Adolph Hitler was issuing from a radio in an adjacent room.
"That evil man is trying to poison the world with hate. But to how many can he talk, and for how long? Fifteen million? Twenty minutes? You, sir, can talk to hundreds of millions, for two hours - and in the dark. The talents you have are not your own. God gave you those talents; they are His gifts to you, to use for His purpose."
The little man got up, said goodbye, and walked away down the stairs, never to be seen again.
The director, however, was floored. He got up, checked himself out of the hospital, and moved his family far from Beverly Hills and Hollywood. His disease miraculously cleared up and he started making movies with a new goal: To entertain, engage and encourage his fellow man.
Who was this director?
What films did he make?
His name was Frank Capra, and the films he made have been watched and passed down to this day. Films like "It's a Wonderful Life", "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "You can't Take it With You," and "Mr. Deeds Goes to town".
We should never be afraid to use the gifts God gives us for His glory.
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
1 Corinthians 15:10-11
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