When YOU Need A Good Samaritan

Imagine this…

There has been an accident in the middle of your local mall full of Christmas shoppers, leaving two of them injured. Your loved one is the first, actively bleeding to death. The second has a deep, painful gash in his finger that will also require medical care. You call out to the crowd for help, but most of them pass you by, either ignoring your existence or considering the injured for a moment before moving on. You are in disbelief at their indifference, so you start pleading more desperately and passionately.

In others’ shoes…

Eventually, 20 people do respond, but 19 of them rush to the aid of the second injured person, offering complex surgeries, expensive medications, and long-term therapy to address his wound. They see your loved one, but the other person looks more like them, and they can personally sympathize with a cut more than with bleeding to death. Infuriated and in complete shock, you beg and beg them to call for help or come to your aid, but they tell you they connect more with the other victim, that they would have a savior complex if they helped you, that helping people like your loved one hasn’t been effective anyway, and that they’re investing their resources for later when they claim they’ll be able to help more people like your loved one.

The ONE Good Samaritan who does come to your aid simply calls 911, finds and holds pressure on the wound, and saves your loved one’s life. Turns out the two of them don’t speak the same language, look anything alike, or have any emotional or relational connection to each other. But it was so easy and cost so very little that the Samaritan knew she could have a far greater impact there than just being the 20th person to end up doing far less good where everyone else was focused.

You just imagined it, but this story is real. Our global neighbors are in disbelief and horror at how much we either don’t care about them or are willing to ineffectively and redundantly spend on others closer to us. Others who have needs but numerous safety nets, needs but no clear or cost-effective solutions, needs but armies of volunteers and donors to help – especially this time of year. And often we spend the most on others who need it least of all.

19 out of 20 American donation dollars stay in America. Americans represent only 0.1% of those in extreme poverty. And it costs over 2000x as much to save a life in the US as in the poorest nations. Good people do not allow such inequality to persist (Click to tweet). I understand that knowing this in your head doesn’t make it easier to feel it in your heart, but if you allow yourself to experience it (the everyday life of our friends in Angola – please say a much-needed prayer for their well-being), your heart will follow.

This is for real. Be the ONE.