Saving Faith

Searching for films by genre on Netflix has lead me to some great movies.  Movies with a moral and spiritual content I like the most.  Such a film is Saving Faith, Cast: Spencer Scott, J.R. Cruz, Nikki Love, Mark Ridley, E'Mari Creech, Joey Holland, Ethan Drake, Stephanie Mathis, Liliana Montenegro, Lauren Lina; produced 2010.

The film begins with the audio of a discussion between father and daughter. The daughter, Rochelle, tells her father, Malcolm, that she is almost finished with her picture that she wants to give her mother, Gloria. Malcolm promises he will not till his wife about the picture. Suddenly there is the sound of a car crash after Rochelle tells her daddy “look out!”.

Six months later it becomes clear that Malcolm is greatly disturbed about losing his daughter in the car crash; things are not going well at a construction site where he is in charge of a team of 5 or 6 workers.   His boss Bob, with whom he has worked a number of years on many projects, tells Malcolm that he is behind schedule and the job will not be completed in time unless he shapes up.  Bob becomes aware Malcolm is not able to focus on his job because of his inability to let go of the loss of his daughter.

Malcolm has become separated from his wife Gloria because of his inability to properly function as a husband for the same reason, his loss of his daughter Rochelle. Their Pastor tries to help and finally suggests attending a group of people who have had similar losses; when he encourages Malcolm to go he gives Malcolm the picture Gloria said was from Rochelle. Malcolm and Gloria both go to the meeting and Malcolm speaks up revealing that he believes he could’ve unbuckled the seatbelt of his daughter so that she would live even if it meant he were to die; instead, with a real struggle releasing his seatbelt, he saves himself instead.

He thus believes he has murdered his daughter and that God would never forgive him for that. He believes this in spite of being told that rescuers received second degree burns just helping him out of the car and to reach his daughter was impossible.  

In anger he fires 2 of his workers for fighting but is told by Bob, his boss, to rehire them. One of the workers Jose is a member of a gang. The gang had brutalized a former member who wanted to quit; Jose wants to quit the gang because he has a family he wants to take care of but the remaining members of the gang convince Jose to beat up Malcolm who fired him. 

During the beating of Malcolm, Jose is told by Malcolm he is to be rehired; Jose puts an end to the beating and Malcolm, who has been receiving mysterious images that indicate God is helping him, seeks out Gloria with whom he promises to renew their life together because he senses God’s forgiveness. 

If one were to relate this to the story of Job, we could fashion God’s answer to Malcolm as: “Do you think, Malcolm, you are greater than God, who can forgive any sin, any wrong doing, and indeed has already forgiven all your sins through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross?”  Just like Job, Malcolm had not lost his faith in God but we human beings are so frail that sometimes it may take even a beating to remind us that the key to living life well, even when we have to suffer such losses, is to love and to forgive; that is the way that God treats us.

And something I forgot: When Malcomb finds his grandfather's bible, stored away and hidden for many years by his uncle, he finds a copy of Rochelle's picture!  Another sign of God's caring.