Ed’s Story

I always wanted to meet Job. His story is well-known to the Bible-literate and then some. A good man, inexplicably and undeservedly stricken with illness, loss, and pain – (un)helpfully told by his wife to curse God and die. I may have met him in Ed’s Story: It’s Not Over.
Ed, in this slow-moving and almost depressing account, doesn’t hold back his honest reactions to his diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and his reflections on his impending death. His first words speak of how much he loved being a pastor – walking alongside others, in Dickensian terms: in the best of times, and the worst of times. All kinds of people he would minister to, giving hope. Yet his diagnosis caused him to lose hope, to lose joy, and to lose peace.
For this man, the tables have turned. He once had hope to offer others. He now would rather keep to himself, aware that all he has to offer is some faint combination of self-pity and despair.  Their home tries to look festive for the holidays, but it can’t escape the look and feel of a hospital – everything sterile-looking, sanitized of color: how do even their Christmas decorations come out looking steely grey?
Yet all is not lost. An unexpected phone call comes in – “God speaking to me with a New York accent” – and the trajectory of Ed’s journey lifts. Unexpected hope, from an unexpected source, is offered to him – and when the voiceover narration and the man himself come together for one brief and ephemeral moment, we finally know the man differently.
Ed may still have ALS at the end of this ten-minute short film, but he does not just have ALS. We, too, are left grateful for the lives we have, whatever they may contain and bring.

Discussion Questions:

1. Share about the most recent major turning point in your life. Did it bring hope or challenge the hopes that you live by?
2. If it is possible to say that physical suffering and illness has a “purpose” – what would you say that it is? If you couldn’t say that it has a purpose, how do you otherwise make sense of it?
3. Read the book of Job. What resonances do you find within it to Ed’s story?
4. Is there anyone in your life going through a similar trial? What would you do or say to offer friendship to that person in this time, as Billy did for Ed?

Watch Caleb Slain’s film, “It Ain’t Over” »

Tina Teng-Henson is a Master of Divinity student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Northern California. She also serves as the Outreach Pastor at Recreate Church, an Evangelical Covenant Church, in San Jose. She and her husband, John, are expecting their first child – and eager to introduce her to this amazing world. Tina loves meeting new people and doing random stuff she’s never done before – but when she needs to recharge, nothing does it for her like a good story – told in a film or in great fiction.