Sometimes You Just Need Tommy Boy

A thought struck me this week that I wanted to share with you. Sometimes we don’t need wise counselors or holy angels or a spiritual epiphany to find encouragement. Sometimes we just need Tommy Boy.

In the film, Tommy Boy, we meet Tommy Callahan, Jr., who has finally graduated college after seven years, passing his final class with a D. In the academic world, he’s not too impressive.

He returns home to greet his father, “Big Tom” Callahan, who runs the family business, selling brake pads. Big Tom is pushing hard to make a comeback during tough times, assuring the bank they just need a small loan so they can sell their brand new brake pads to ensure their company’s success. Now that Tommy Boy has a degree, Big Tom gives him his own office so he can start learning how to one day run the company himself.

Then Big Tom dies. Leaving Tommy Boy confused, with his life and future in question, not to mention his father’s company.

Tommy Boy hits the road with sales expert Richard to sell their new brake pads and get the company funded. But he knows nothing about sales, and he’s failing miserably. His life is a wreck, his skills are minimal, and everyone in his father’s company is depending on him to bring in money, but he hasn’t made even one sale.

Tommy Boy’s life stinks.

He and Richard stop at a restaurant for a bite to eat and he asks the waitress for some chicken wings, but the fryer’s already shut down. She’s not interested in doing anything extra to get Tommy Boy some wings. It’s clear from her face that she has her own daily problems to deal with.

So Tommy tells her about his horrible day, and his horrible situation. He explains what a horrible salesman he is, and how he fails at every turn. Then he tells her, “That’s when people like us have gotta forge ahead, Helen. Am I right?”

She decides to get the fryer turned back on to give him some wings. Why? Because Tommy Boy recognized her as a fellow worker, struggling through life just like he was. He saw her as a person of value, dealing with the same hardships he was facing. And Helen also recognized that they shared the same struggle, and decided to help out a fellow human being.

I read a great analysis of the film, It’s a Wonderful Life, identifying that it’s not a cheesy story about an angel helping a disappointed guy enjoy Christmas. It’s about a man, struggling through the worst aspects of life imaginable. A man who struggled to help others his whole life, only to end up in danger of being arrested and shamed, under false accusations of embezzlement.

In the film, George Bailey’s life is over. He can never pay what’s owed, and he can’t save or protect his family that he loves. He can’t even save himself. When he decides his life insurance policy is worth more to his family than he himself is, he prepares to commit suicide. To give up on life in order to escape his unsolvable problem and keep his family supported.

An angel appears to him and ends up showing him the true value of his life. He shows him how much others need him, despite the difficult struggles he suffers to help others. But the angel shows George that his struggles are worth it.

That’s what Christmas is about. God knew we could never measure up to him, since he did not sin, and we can’t stop sinning. So he came to Earth himself, making himself like us – a human baby named Jesus, also called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” He came to be one of us, to share in our human struggle. To show the way to connect with God, by believing in Jesus and accepting his sacrifice as full payment for our sins. We could never pay the debt for our sins, but Jesus could, and did.

But it wouldn’t mean anything if he didn’t first see us, acknowledge us, and share our struggles. He didn’t come in glory, with trumpets blaring and a red carpet laid out for his feet. He came as the lowest of the low, without even a comfortable place to be born.

Instead of being born in a royal palace, Jesus was born in a barn, in an animal trough. God didn’t come to us as he was – the King of the universe. He didn’t come as a leader, or a rock star, or a major influencer. He came as a nobody, and his arrival was barely noticed. He lived with his parents and learned to obey and honor them, not starting his ministry or miracles until he was thirty years old. He never married, never traveled far, never made a fortune, never published a book, and never ran a huge company.

But his simple, struggling life changed the world, and provided the way for us to connect to God.

People don’t always need a pastor, or a psychiatrist, or a professor. Sometimes people just need someone like you and me, sharing in their struggles, ready to connect with them and encourage them to keep going, because you see and share their same hardships.

When you see people who need encouragement, consider that you might be exactly the right person to encourage them, no matter what your professional skill set is.

Because sometimes what people really need is someone struggling through life, just like they are. Just like you and me.

Am I right, Helen?