FAILING
TO HELP

Topics: Love; Mercy; Regret; Responsibility

Reference: Luke 10:30–37

I was driving to Chicago early one Sunday morning when I noticed a car in the ditch. I looked closer and saw an empty car with the driver’s door wide open. Should I stop?

I remembered reading about an elderly woman whose car went off the highway in Florida. She was trapped in her car for three days and nearly died. Then I thought of Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan. Convicted, I slowed down and pulled off the road.

Forty yards ahead of me, another car stopped, and two young men got out. I walked toward them, yelling, “Do you have a cell phone?” Neither answered. I asked again, “Do you have a cell phone?” They just looked at me and walked toward me.

Suddenly I felt uneasy. “Did you see that car back in the ditch?” I asked. The two were now ten yards away. The man on the right was taller than me and thirty pounds heavier; the man on the left was at least sixty pounds heavier. “Uh-oh,” I thought, “this was a mistake.”

As I froze, the young men walked past me and continued down the road.

I jumped into my car and pulled back onto the expressway, feeling as if I had just dodged a bullet. How easy it would have been for those two to have jumped me, thrown me in the ditch, and stolen my car. My interest in the car in the ditch drained from me like milk from a broken bottle.

Still, my conscience bothered me. I should pull over and call 911. I drove past one exit, then another, then several more. Finally, fifteen minutes later I pulled into a McDonald’s. They’ll have a phone, I thought. They didn’t.

When I arrived at church ten minutes later, I could have called, but I didn’t. Later as I drove home, I looked to see what had happened to the car, but a concrete barrier blocked my view. I felt I had done wrong. If someone had been in that car in need, they got their help from someone other than me.

Later I asked God’s forgiveness through Christ for failing to help the driver of the disabled car. I’ve thought about what I will do the next time I face that situation. I will be more careful, but I will try to help, for even though there are risks, I have a responsibility to my neighbor.

—Craig Brian Larson, Arlington Heights, Illinois