The Gospel in 'Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl'

Dear reader, 

While we go through this story I must warn you of its dark nature. 

As the title presents one of the main characters in this story (Rachael) is dying, and the subject matter can be rather triggering. 

Greg is the most awkward high schooler you could imagine. He blends in just enough with every clique in the school, so he likes to just be invisible. 

As if he’s just passing through life trying to not make any ripples or sounds. 

His co-worker Earl makes movies with him, they take old movies and remake them changing one small detail. They’d been doing this since they were kids, and they found it to be something they enjoyed doing, even though they would both agree each of the films was horrible. 

One day Greg’s mom comes into his room and shares some poor news. A girl at his school has obtained leukemia. Greg doesn’t know how to respond, so he shrugs it off. 

He doesn’t know how to care about anyone. His mom keeps pestering him to go and spend time with her so she feels heard and seen, but Greg continues to complain and mope about it, he doesn’t want to. 

Greg eventually goes and sees Rachael, he’s upfront about not wanting to be there. But he asks to hang out to get his mom off his back. 

Rachael and Greg awkwardly interact, Rachael is quiet, but Greg does everything that he can to lighten the mood, by making joke after joke. 

He finally gets Rachael to smile a bit, and it's clear that he receives some joy in response. 

Greg gets up to leave and looks back “So, can we do this again?” 

Rachael nods and a friendship is born. 

Over time Rachael and Greg open up more and more, Greg truly has little to no social skills, but over time it’s clear that he cares about Rachael even if he doesn’t show it very well. 

Rachael’s condition slowly gets worse and worse, and one of my favorite parts of the story is when you watch Greg waiting outside the house for Rachael to return from appointments just to help her get inside. 

You can see Greg’s heart start to grow towards her, not just in a romantic way, but he gives up so much of his time to be with her, just so she doesn’t feel alone. 

Rachael challenges Greg on what he’s going to do after high school and draws out the fact that Greg didn’t believe he was worthy enough for college. That all the pain and misery of the school system would just increase if he put himself through extra schooling. 

“That’s stupid. Apply to a college right now.” She hands him a laptop and together they fill out the application in the hospital. 

A few months had past now and Greg goes to visit Rachael. She’s abnormally sad, and he pokes around in the conversation to find the cause. 

Rachael had decided to stop the treatment, it wasn’t helping and she didn’t want to feel more miserable for the rest of her short life. 

Greg lashes out in anger, “How can you just give up?” It’s clear he’s heartbroken, but some of his selfishness floats to the surface. “That’s not fair to me.” 

He doesn’t respond well. My heart hurt for both of them as this fight takes place, knowing full well that they’re both humans who are hurting immensely, and I don’t see myself responding in any other way. 

Rachael responds with the final word. “You didn’t even want to spend time with me anyway, your mom forced you to, no one’s forcing you to anymore, just go.”

Greg in return pushes Rachael out of his life. It’s clear he’s unhappy about the choice, but he doesn’t know how else to respond. He didn’t want to agree with Rachael giving up, but he didn’t know how to support her if she was just embracing death. 

One night Greg received an email saying that he was accepted into college, but then after reviewing his academic work this past year, he was denied. 

Over his entire senior year, he spent every waking moment with Rachael, comforting her, just being by her side. He ignored every project, paper, and assignment to focus on her and her well-being. 

His anger and despair increases. 

His mom walks into his room to say that Rachael has just been rushed to the hospital.

“You’ll regret it for the rest of your life if you don’t go and see her.” 

Greg goes and Rachael is clearly in pain. She can’t speak, and she doesn’t have the strength to push Greg away. 

He sets up a small movie projector. The film plays, and it’s a movie Greg and Earl had made for her to cheer her up. It’s very abstract with a lot of beautiful colors and shots of people smiling. 

She tears up and begins to go into cardiac arrest, she later goes into a coma and dies. 

Greg’s response is pure sadness. His selfishness is exposed, he loses the first person who actually took the time to hear and understand him, and he’s left wanting that relationship more than anything. 

I think that’s the interesting thing for me as I understand this story, it wasn’t about a romantic relationship for him, sure the thought popped up here and there, but in the end, that wasn’t the primary focus. 

He learned how to love, to give himself even if he received nothing, but now he found himself wanting to have someone he could lift up again. 

Before Rachael died she left small notes for Greg, letters of encouragement, and secret jokes shared between the two of them, but the last one was a letter she wrote on Greg’s behalf to the college explaining his academic downfall this year. 

They later allowed Greg into college, and that’s the end. 

I touched on it already but the gospel perspective of Greg learning to lay down his life was so clear. He did in the end benefit from his friendship with Rachael, but if it came down to measuring how much time and resources he poured into her it would not balance out. 

She needed so much, he was there to meet those needs emotionally and relationally. 

We’d do well to remember that we cannot love in this selfless way unless Jesus had loved us first. Greg needed to be coerced by his mom to go and love Rachael, but with us and Christ it is a holy compulsion.

We are compelled by Jesus to go and love those who are hurting. 

I’m not saying go and find a dying girl and love them until they die, but if we view this life through heaven’s eyes it’s clear that everyone who walks this life apart from the gospel is dying just as Rachael was. 

Let’s go shine a light before all men. Let us go and love them selflessly. 

Sincerely, 

Your Fellow Selfish Yet Sometimes Selfless Friend

-Mitchell