A bright seminary student is quick to help those around her. But when her efforts end suddenly in disaster, she re-examines her life’s purpose. Turns out, the star seminary student really isn’t sure what God wants from her. She looks to her crusty professor for help, only to find he too is haunted by a dark secret. Confronting each other, they deepen their faith and understanding of what it means to walk with God.

SYNOPSIS:

Laptops fire up. The seminary study group meets. Emily has disturbing news-fellow student Robert has dropped out. He asked her a simple but unsettling question—what are you doing with your life? She brushed it aside.

Kyle, Marie’s teenaged son, tries to ease her anxiety attack at the sleep site for the homeless, where Emily volunteers. He could use more of volunteer Emily’s comforting presence, himself.

Professor McLaren drones on in class. Star student Emily knows her Bonhoeffer. She can even capably explain his main tenets. An impressed and even inspired Professor McLaren comes alive for a moment.

Friend and fellow faculty member Trachinger invites McLaren to Christmas dinner. The two are old friends but McLaren declines, hiding a hurt. He won’t be persuaded.

He turns his coat collar up against the cold winter night and heads off to his car.

Home for Christmas break, Emily renews high school friendships. But she is growing in her seminary student self. We can see the widening gulf between her and her friends.

Back from the holidays, the coffee-addicted study group meets in the library. On a whim, they look up Professor McLaren in a who’s who of American preachers. His resume is impressive. So why is he such a grouch? Emily can’t explain it, but she senses he is some sort of a wounded soldier.

Volunteering again at the shelter, Emily finds that Christmas was rough for Kyle. She extends herself further, offering to help him and his mother find a place to live.

A college official notices when the irritable Professor McLaren blows up at a student in class.

One of Emily’s classes puts her in a hospital as a chaplain. But she’s inexperienced as a counselor and it shows. What do they want from her?

Trachinger approaches McLaren about his blowup. The college official was going to write him up over the incident until Trachinger stepped in. Mollified, McLaren agrees to temper himself.

Emily is not doing well. She's ineffective with the homeless; hospital chaplaincy has thrown her for a loop and she’s even done wrong assignments for the study group. Her insistent pager summons her to the hospital. She answers the page to find Kyle has fatally OD’d on his mother’s sleeping pills! Emily is totally blown away!

Emily angrily confronts her professor. How good does she have to be? She has run herself ragged. What does God want from her? Professor McLaren squares her away. She is not supposed to be the answer. She is supposed to guide people to the answer—Jesus Christ. Her question awakens the preacher in McLaren and he comes alive with the spirit. McLaren explains the meaning behind the verses found in the book of Micah, chapter 6. What does God want from her? The answer is deceptively simple. "Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God."

Emily turns it around, asking McLaren to explain himself. He reluctantly confesses that when his wife suddenly died, he threw himself into his work. His daughter effectively lost both of her parents. She committed suicide, leaving him with guilt. God has forgiven him, Emily says, he should forgive himself. Their confrontation provides a deep healing for both of them.

Eager to return to the pulpit, McLaren resigns to return to the pulpit while a renewed Emily goes on to graduate!