Women & The Good Samaritan Question
Driving home today I saw a shabby older man walking along the road. He had a walking stick, and if memory serves me well, a bag or two. To give a little more context this was a major high way and his location was miles from the nearest town. As a youngish female disciple of Christ, in a vehicle…alone…I am faced with a dilemma. Self-preservation instincts tell me to pass by on the other side. Immediately echos from every sermon on the Parable of the Good Samaritan are bouncing around in my head, a curse of growing up in the church I suppose, youth group kid guilt, if you will. The rest of the way home I was wrestling with the question of to stop or not to stop. Hold on, cause here was my basic thought process…
Man that guy looked rough. I wonder if he’s dangerous. But he’s an old man. My dad’s getting up there, I wouldn’t wrestle my dad. I bet Dad could still win in a wrestling match with me. I just passed by on the other side, like the guys in the Good Samaritan story. But hold on, the Samaritan man was beat up and dying. This guy is just walking along the road. Maybe he wants to walk. Besides, I might stop if I had my 9mm with me. That way, if he tried anything, I could at least defend myself. But I do have a weapon with me, God’s Spirit is always with me. How much more powerful is the Spirit than a gun? Would He protect me? My husband would probably shoot me himself if I let some some strange older guy get in the car with me.
That was the basic discussion I had with myself on the way home. I just wonder what you think Christians should do when faced with this issue. I don’t encounter it much. In this situation, the guy wasn’t even asking to be picked up, he was just walking along. But what if he was?
Women: Should we trust God enough to abandon common sense and risk our own safety to help someone out?
Men: What would you expect your mother, daughter, wife, friend to do in this situation?
