to save a life...

I'm a sucker for the cheesy low-budget Christian-themed movies. The ones like Facing the Giants, Fireproof, Something to Sing About, No Greater Love... and now To Save a Life. I've seen To Save a Life in the Christian bookstores for awhile and my sister had told me she and her husband liked it so I added it to my Christmas wish list. My other sister bought it for me and I finally got around to watching it this week. I wasn't sure what to expect, but there were so many relevant themes presented in a way I didn't think was too preachy or too out of touch from real life.

I don't want to give away too much about the actual movie plot... I'd rather invite anyone and everyone to my house to watch it (within the confines of the law) so it can reach you like it did me. Sometimes we can become so jaded to look around and decide this is just how life is going to be. Maybe I'm naive, but the movie motivated me to hold on to hope... hope people can be better for each other. I look around the campus where I work and have to believe there's a chance for change.

A clip from the movie...

In semi-related news... I read a blog today about feeling left out. To Save a Life addresses it from a teen perspective and dealing with kids who feel left out. Unfortunately it's not just kids who feel that way, but sometimes I need a reminder like Sarah Markley's. And this is why I call my best friend Laura after a bad day...

[from sarahmarkley.com] Whether it’s an adult-styled Ditch-Em game, with intention and purpose behind the leaving out, or simply a party or gathering it doesn’t make sense for us to attend, even as grownups we still can’t escape the feelings of being

overlooked,

outside,

left out.

It’s why I can’t watch Twitter when All. Of. My. Friends. are at the same conference and I’m tap tap tapping away on my laptop at my normal Starbucks at home. #LeftOut

It’s why I inside-gasp when I read on someone else’s Facebook wall the “OOOHH, it was SOO fun last night with the WHOLE group. Let’s do it AGAIN soon!” Um. I thought I was part of the whole group. I wore my bloated-tummy sweats, ate tortilla chips and watched “I Love Lucy” reruns while my husband worked last night.

It’s why it’s hard it’s sometimes hard to be happy for friends when they get chosen for __________ when it’s something I’ve been passed over for many times. Oh Yay! Whoo-Hoo. I’m so happy for you. When all I want to do is ugly-cry and dramatically scream to the sky, “WHY NOT ME?”

I could tie this article up and tell you that No, You Are Not Forgotten. And that would be true.

But what I really want to say, and what I can’t say to my fourth grade self or my four year old daughter, is Get Over It. At 10 or at 4 we lack the emotional tools to pick our teary selves up and sniffle our snot back into our noses.

But, how old are you? How old am I? Certainly old enough to know the truth:

That most of the time being overlooked is accidental. That most of the people who are chronic conference attendees either do so for work or because they don’t have anything else to do. And that being “left out” is only because you perceive that you would be more content somewhere else.

You are better than that. And so am I. I’m going to suggest that remember what and who we have at our fingertips. That we stop worrying about feeling left out and worry more about how we can be content today. Here. With what I have. That we try to create the type of experiences this morning or this weekend that will make us fall back on our sofas exhausted and say,

“Let’s do that again very soon.”