where are the good samaritans.

Do you ever wonder how you can help another? Or if you are to help?

Going through your days keeping your eyes open for the one you can stop and help is challenging. Espeically when you think there’s nothing you can do to help their situation.

Meet my friend Mike.

He’s a friend that has been in and out of my path the past two years. When I met him he lived on the streets with his wife, he then got a job and they were able to get a place to stay. I was so excited for them. They were looking great. Cleaned up – physically and emotionally. It seemed their drug usage was down, as well. It was a blessing to see the difference in their demeanor each week as they walked in to church.

Then they disappeared. When I’d go out on the streets, I’d look and ask others about them. No one knew them. My heart sank!

Out of nowhere Mike crosses my path again out on the streets this weekend. He was tattered, torn and hungry. As he walked up  smiling he gave me the biggest sweatiest hug that smelled of the streets. At that moment I didn’t mind, I was thankful he was alive.

He began to share his recent days, his wife had left him and he had no where to go. He roams the streets at night trying to stay safe, getting a little shut-eye here and there and then heads to work early the next morning. He said he didn’t want to go on and was trying to sort through his feelings.

My heart ached.

I made sure he had cold bottles of water, food, and socks. I wanted to do more — yet, I did all I could. I helped him in the moment, gave him a hug, and spoke words of encouragement to his soul.

He left promising he’d see me again soon.

Yesterday I wake up to the news that a homeless man’s body had been found downtown in my city. In the area where Mike was walking the streets. Scrambling to the internet, I couldn’t get all the details fast enough.

This is a modern day Biblical story.

As I searched online and the papers trying to get a name of the individual (which I still not have found), the article written up on KRISTV stirred up a rage within me.

I was asking again, “where’s the sanctity of human life? doesn’t anyone care these days?”

Here’s a brief snippet of the story, does this not sound exactly like the story of the Good Samaritan to you? (read that here)

The death has been a hard reality for other homeless people who call this part of town their home.

Fidel Garcia is a homeless man who lives nearby. He says, “It’s like me. They can find me dead, maybe tomorrow morning because that’s what I do. I sleep there, here, everywhere.”

Other residents feel more could of been done to help the man, “Somebody should of got him. Somebody should of picked him up. Somebody should of helped him. I would of helped him if I had seen him.”

Ironically help was just on the other side of the street. (KRISTV article here)

Read the article because there are more similarities than I’m writing. Help was on the other side of the street. Yet people passed by, they saw him passed out and bleeding, and NO ONE DID ONE THING!

No one helped. It’s time we cross-over peeps and begin helping one another!

Seriously, how can we not stop to help others? I know some do, as seen in this video as the woman and her 4-year old were pulled off the railroad tracks by others stepping out to help. So what was it ? Was this guy was homeless and therefore didn’t warrant a stop or were others afraid to stop? I don’t know, but I’m disturbed over the lack of honor for life.

Get out. Get involved. Step across the street. Help another. You might not be able to help the individual to all they need, but you can do a little something.

It’s time we all be more mindful to cross-over and help.

And if you see my friend Mike, please let me know he’s OK!

 

Have you ever stepped out to help another when you weren’t sure what to do?

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