How to Save a Life

Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
You begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

Where did I go wrong? I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
How to save a life
How to save a life

In high school I stayed up all night not a few times trying to save someone I loved. But I didn't know how.

After The Fray penned this chart-topper two years ago, the meaning got obscured by its eventual attachment to the ABC television series “Grey’s Anatomy,” a meaningful story of love longed for, lost and found, amidst a whole lot of meaningless sex among doctors. Which is pretty typical, I suppose of our culture—confusion about love, confusion about sex. The original meaning of the lyrics actually concerned an at-risk teenager who defied outreach and counseling.

There is a part of me that is trying to know how to save a life. I have been doing that really all my life, from the first person I reached out to spiritually when I was in junior high school to my graying 40’s. Even now I’m in my first quarter at Seattle Pacific University as a Masters candidate in Psychology, hoping to learn, along the way of saving souls, how to help save marriages and families. I want to know how.

But then, as one of my professors said recently, we can’t save anyone. We can’t “make it happen.” Yes, we can help. But only God, His grace, and their own choices can really pave that Way. Even surgeons are under a bit of a delusion; it seems like they really can “save the day,” but of course, without the miracle of God-driven human healing, medicine is completely a waste of time. If I’m a surgeon, for all I do, there’s so very much I don’t do.

With Lynne’s cancer well-treated but well still on our minds and personal horizons, I am reminded of the miracle of deliverance and salvation—what a team thing it is. Lost souls, hearts, marraiges, and families need God's good help. We need God. They need us. And God needs us to do our part—so much smaller than His, but so vital, so urgent.

We don’t know how to save a life. But we do know how one is saved. Will we, then, stay up all night?