Impressed by the overwhelmingly positive reviews, Leeman and I checked out the movie “50/50” this weekend.   The film tells the story of a 27-year-old facing his 50/50 shot of surviving cancer.  Sounds like a thrilling way to spend a Saturday afternoon, right?  Actually, there were some hilarious moments in the film, and it’s one of the few movies that had me cracking up one moment and literally crying the next.  I’d highly recommend it!

As much as the writers did an effective job of bringing the audience alongside Adam’s emotional journey, the character I actually found myself identifying with the most was Katherine, Adam’s therapist.  Katherine herself is only in her mid-twenties and, at one point, confesses to Adam that she is still studying for her doctorate in psychology and that he is only the third patient she’s ever had:

During their first meetings, Katherine tries to respond to Adam’s situation by saying and doing what she has been trained to say and do, despite the fact that it is not what Adam needs.  I found myself having flashbacks to my own pastoral training—being thrust into a room with a grieving family and struggling to find the balance between what I’d been taught to do and what was right in the moment.

We might not all be aspiring pastors or counselors.  But we are students or “trainees” in the Christian faith.  The word “disciple” (used to describe followers of Jesus) means “student” or “learner.”  As students of Jesus, our lives are about living in the example that Jesus gave us for perfection and holiness: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2).

I think often we become wary of overtly identifying ourselves as followers of Jesus because we have been led to believe that the religious life is about do’s and don’ts.  Following the example of Christ our teacher, however, is not primarily about adhering to a list of rules and giving textbook answers to difficult situations.  If we look at our Christian vocation that simply, we will always come off as awkward and stilted in the way we engage with the world around us.

Instead, living as a student of Christ means continually striving to know the person of Christ better—to know how the person of Christ would interact with particular people and particular situations.  On one level, we should do that by studying the “textbook” of our faith (the Bible).   But we also have to flesh out our study of scripture by prayer, worship, and seeking Christ in the people we encounter everyday.  It is only by opening ourselves up to personal engagement with Christ—by allowing Christ to challenge and change us—that we will truly fulfill our calling as students and imitators of Christ.