The Okay Samaritan

I keep thinking about the story of the Good Samaritan. What would have happened if the Samaritan had said, “I need to wait until the facts come out” before I can care about this guy?

When did we become so quick to blame? So eager to choose sides? So incapable of thinking of someone else’s point of view?

A life is a life. On both sides there are real children across this country coming home without their fathers. Mothers are grieving the loss of children they will never hug again.

We seriously need to work on our empathy and compassion. Our lack of concern for others is becoming our downfall.

Compassion means imagining what someone else is going through, climbing into someone else’s skin and walking around for a while, and then finding tangible ways to help and make things better.

It does not mean “That’s too bad that happened to you, but I’m going to go on with my life over here as though nothing happened.” It takes extra effort. It means you might be inconvenienced or get uncomfortable.

Please try to understand someone else’s perspective today. Talk to someone who is black, Hispanic, gay, single, without kids. You probably won’t agree on everything, and that’s okay. But we cannot love others, we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves, if we are not even willing to get to know them.