Let Me Help You

 

I want you to consider this scenario:

 

 A man lying wounded on a rocky mountain. He's been attacked by a band of robbers and is bleeding. They've taken everything that he had and have left him there for dead. As he lies there, seemingly with no help around him, looking desperately into the distance hoping to see something or somebody, he hears the sound of footsteps and his heart leaps within him. As the footsteps draw near, he lifts his head and can just see the fringes of a robe that signals the approach of a holy man of God. Hope rises within him. Then, all of a sudden, those footsteps begin to recede; they cross the road and begin to move away from him, and he sinks down in despair.

 

A few minutes later, footsteps again, and once again, he lifts his head and sees a person who works in holy places come down the road. Again, hope rises within him, thinking that, if anybody can help, this person will. But once again those footsteps cross the road and begin to recede into the distance. The man puts his head down and begins to weep thinking that all is lost.

 

All of a sudden, he hears the sound of an approaching donkey. As he lifts his head, he looks and he sees somebody from another community coming along, and he lets his head fall back again, knowing that this person is not going to help because he's not from his place. But, lo and behold, those footsteps stop and a man gets off from the donkey, comes to him and gently begins to tend to his wounds. He takes oil and puts them on the wounds and cleans him up as best as he can. Then he puts him on his donkey and he walks next to the donkey and takes him to an inn. He tells the innkeeper, "Take care of this man. Here's money. If you need more, I will come back and pay you. But take care of this man."

 

Things like this happen every day, all around us. We don't need to go to mountain slopes and lonely roads to see men and women who are wounded and battered and beaten by circumstances or people or things of this world. They are all around us. I was reminded today that, sometimes, these people are so hidden from us that they are able to put on a façade and go through the motions without letting others know how much they hurt and how beaten they are. Yet, if you take a moment to look closely, you will see that their eyes are hollow, their posture is slumped, their walk is unfocused and purposeless, and their demeanor may be completely listless. These are men and women who are actually in deep stages of sorrow and sadness. Life is not going the way that they expected it would, and they seem to think that there is no way out. Many of them believe that nobody cares, as well.

 

Yet, I thought this morning, that's not true! You and I must be ones who care. You and I must be ones who are able to stop and see hollow eyes or slumped postures and know that there is something beyond the façade that needs help. I just felt in my spirit today to encourage you to look at people all around you, get away from the bottom line, the profits, the marketing strategies, financial account sheets and all of that, and look around your work place or where ever you are. You might be on a commute, a train, or walking around. See whether there is one person today who desperately needs a word from you, who desperately needs somebody to reach out in kindness. Maybe that somebody is you.

 

That's my prayer for you this morning and my hope for all of us.

 

May I pray with you? Almighty God, we rarely see the needs of people around us for we are so caught up with the things that are important and urgent to us alone. Help us today, to look beyond. Help us to see where there are needs, where people need a touch from us. Help us to speak a good kind word or reach out with a caring hand, and bring a spark of joy and light back into ones who have lost it. We ask for Your wisdom and Your understanding. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

 

·       My paraphrased version of the Good Samaritan story taken from the Bible: Luke 10:25-37