No Help From a Fish

If you want a definition of water, do not ask a fish. This odd sounding but often repeated adage is backed by a healthy dose of truth. A fish would be unable to comprehend something as simple as water because the water is its entire world. The water is all it knows. Despite being surrounded by water its whole life, it never is able to gain a proper perspective on the most essential component of its existence. At times, people are no better than fish at understanding even the most basic parts of our lives especially from the perspective of others. I was given the opportunity to come out of the water by previewing a film that will be released on January 22, 2010 entitled To Save a Life.

The movie follows the life a popular high school basketball player, Jake Taylor, who is faced with immense tragedy when his childhood friend commits suicide. He is approached by the youth pastor of a local church and eventually decides to attend a Sunday morning service. The next day at school Jake is talking with one of the girls who is a regular at the church and she proceeds to invite him to “youth group” on Tuesday night. Jake does not understand because he has already been to church. With a look of both confusion and astonishment, he simply asks, “You go to church two times a week?” For the audience of youth workers, this was a very humorous moment. The entire theater erupted with laughter and understandably so. We all have built our lives around going to church two times a week. For someone to be confused by such a simple concept, to us, is laughable. However, I imagine that when the film is released, there will be many people who witness this scene and are just as confused as Jake. They too will want an answer to the question he asked because they do not understand what to us is almost second nature.

More than anything, this film helps Christians see themselves through the eyes of a non-believer. Paul encourages the Christian “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Romans 12:3). At times, we struggle to do this because, like the fish, we are unable to remove ourselves from comfortable surroundings and ways of thinking. We cannot see our lives the way that others do. If we are not careful, God’s people can become so closed off that we miss opportunities to positively influence those around us because we just do not make the effort to see the world from their perspective.

There are many people hurting on this planet. They may feel isolated. They may be dealing with loss. They may be searching for answers. While we cannot explain everything that happens, we put our trust in the One who can. It is our responsibility to teach others to do the same. We will not be able to teach them until we understand them, and we will not understand them if we do not make a conscious effort to learn. Let us try every day to step outside of our comfort zones and reach out to people whom we might not notice otherwise. Let us fulfill Jesus’ call to go into a hurting world with the Gospel that God is good and able to make sense out of life’s many troubles.