To Save a Life

For Jake Taylor, life seems easy: everybody likes him, he is athletically gifted, good looking. He has a basketball scholarship, a hot girlfriend and a bright future.  Jake has the appearance of a perfect life.   But privately, Jake is struggling: his parents struggle with disappointments in their relationship, his mother makes excuses for her husband’s bad behavior and his father shows a lack of character reflected in marital infidelity and a focus on worldly ideals. 

Jake has mirrored his father’s lack of character in his dealing with Roger Dawson.  Roger is Jake’s childhood pal who gave his all for his friend.  But in high school everything changes, and Jake chooses his own growing popularity over his old friendship. Tired of rejection and having no place to belong, Roger walks onto his high school campus one day with a gun in his pocket: his pain-filled heart the impetus for a tragic event.

Jake is devastated by Roger’s action.  As Jake seeks to reconcile his choices with the decision Roger made, he finds himself deeply compelled to reach out to God, and to the kids on the fringe – the social outcasts. The decision threatens Jake's world. His desire to find meaning in his life could cost him dearly. Jake has to decide what really matters in his life.

“To Save a Life” could have been considered melodrama forty years ago, but today’s teenager faces these kinds of challenges and worse week in and week out on high school campuses across America.  Dealing with the struggle of climbing the social ladder while enduring hormonal changes, conflict and moral dilemma on a daily basis, high school kids worry as much about if they will graduate as they do about what they will do if they manage to make it through the next four years.  Jake and his friends are everyday kids in today’s world, and their struggles are magnified by the typical lack of a moral compass at home, forcing them to seek each other’s opinions for approval rather than the example of parents or the Word of the God who created them.  

When the film was viewed recently at Heritage Bible Church by the youth, it struck a chord with students and parents alike. One dad was observed weeping as he watched the portrayal of Roger being rejected by his peers.  Another parent, Susan, said, “A key part of the movie for me was how Christians were not portrayed as perfect, hypocrisy in the church was evident, but because he was searching, God touched Jake and helped him see past that and try to do the right thing despite the mixed message.”  Katherine, another mom who watched the flick, mused, “We should be more attentive to the person who is the outcast….as Christians, there should be no outcasts in our (community).”  

“I wasn’t sure anyone else felt like I do.” Stated Leah, a student who watched the video and was relieved to relate to and be understood by the characters in To Save a Life.  Its human nature to want to be liked, and countercultural to choose to be inclusive of all people.  But as much as Jesus was counter cultural, and we are called to be like him, we must find ways to ramp up the welcome to all who come seeking after a place of safety and loving kindness. To Save a Life points a glaring spotlight on our weakness as a body of believers when we do not offer this basic response to human need.  Utilizing this media to teach and convey the message, perhaps we can get steps closer to growing a church where the love of God is so evident, so palpable, that people can’t help but feel the love and want to step up and join us on the journey.