March

I’ve delayed posting my project for the month of March, simply because I’m not doing very well.

For the month of March, I decided to become a Good Samaritan. I decided that I would take the initiative and get involved.

I’m sure you know what I mean—every day, we see “things” we could help with. People or events that need our help. The man walking down the road with a gas can in his hand. The old lady trying to load groceries in her car. The person in line in front of us at the grocery store who is $1 short on their bill. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I usually don’t step forward and help out in these situations. I always have some great justification why I can’t get involved: I’m running late, I don’t have any money, I shouldn’t pick up strangers, etc etc—but we all know these are simply excuses. The bottom line is that I’m inherently selfish, and stopping to get involved would probably mess up MY plans for MY day. Subconsciously, I’ve simply decided that “I” am more important than anyone else (and honestly, I don’t like that the fact that I can live with that reality).

Psychologist Rollo May once said, “Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.”

This is where it starts to bother me. I’m familiar with the Parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus told in Luke 10 (if you need a refresher, it’s Luke 10.25-37). And while some scholars claim that this story is an allegory (where the characters symbolically represent other things), I interpret it literally. That we should physically stop, even when it’s inconvenient, even when it’s a stranger and even when it’s people who “aren’t like us”, and get involved. Maybe Jesus meant it as an allegory as well, but I also believe he meant it literally.

14 days into the month, I’m not doing very well. I’ve only had a couple of opportunities---actually, let me rephrase that. I’ve only taken advantage of a couple opportunities thus far, but I’ll try to be more deliberate and intentional in the remaining 17 days of the month.

"The Good Samaritan"; William Hogarth (1736)


"The Good Samaritan"; Jan Wijnants (1670)


"The Good Samaritan"; Jose Tapiro y Buro (date unknown)


"The Good Samaritan"; Pietro Benvenuti (late 1700's)


"The Good Samaritan"; unknown artist & date


"The Good Samaritan"; Rembrandt (1630)


"The Good Samaritan"; Aime Morot (1880)


"The Good Samaritan"; Rembrandt (1638)


"The Good Samaritan"; Fetti Domenicol(date unknown)



"The Good Samaritan"; stained glass in the Church of St Eutrope; Clermont-Ferrand, France

2 comments:

ga said...

so, are you going to tell us of some of your "opportunities" or would that be a little self promoting in your book?

jdschrock said...

I got to your blog by doing a search on Tim Hansel. I had read his book "You gotta keep dancin" for sometime now which I found to have some excellent insights. So tonight I did a search and discovered to my dismay that Tim had passed away. I kept on looking at your blog and discovered some articles that I have interest in. One is your article on the Amish and the other is your article on cutting out sugar and PHO's. I was especially curious about your interest and/or connections with the Amish. My grandfather was an old order Amish bishop and my dad was Amish but left the Amish church when I was very young. About 4 months ago I started a blog/website about the Amish called www.amishleben.com if you care to look at it. I would love to hear from you.
THanks,
JD Schrock
jdschrock at gmail dot com.