I hate when I see someone hitchhiking or seemingly stranded on the side of the road — especially when that someone is a woman, even more so at night. It is deeply ingrained in my nature to want to help and I always have to remind myself — giving a ride to someone you don’t know opens the door for way too many horrible things to happen and pretty much all of those things end in never being seen again.
The Bible addresses this very scenario in the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10:25-37.
Jesus tells the parable of a man robbed and left beaten nearly to death on the roadside. A priest comes along soon after, but instead of helping the man, the priest crosses to the other side of the road. Another man passes by and also does not stop to help the injured man.
Finally our hero, the Good Samaritan arrives, bandages the man, tends to his wounds, and then takes him to a nearby innkeeper and pays for the man’s stay there.
He does this even though he knows the robbers could be using the victim as bait, lying in wait to take advantage of him.
At the conclusion of the parable, Jesus asks, “Which of these three were a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
Well, obviously it’s the Good Samaritan, BUT, you say, “We live in a time where something worse than being robbed and beaten could happen to you in an instant.”
Should we then decide never to stop and offer to help?
In social media videos a common refrain is “Don’t help them, don’t stop for them… that’s just a junkie.”
Though in reality, if an actual junkie, your intervention could save their life.
I once had a very kind man take a chance on stopping to help me when I found myself broke down on the side of the road. It was a Friday morning and I had an early morning meeting. Required to be “dressed up” for this meeting, I was not prepared to be hiking up and down a roadside ditch trying to find cell service on a remote road in a skirt and ridiculous shoes.
The man stopped, expressed his concern for my obviously perilous situation, and offered to wait with me until my husband could get there.
I was not any more excited about his offer than I was his pointing out my vulnerability.
Still, the man offered to wait in his car across the street from me, and my husband, whom I finally got on the phone, agreed to the arrangement — though I personally feel there is no way he didn’t break every speed limit on his way to get to me that day.
Luckily, I ended up safe, my car fixed, and was soon on my way.
But, this is not always the case.
I understand being afraid to stop, you are, after all, potentially putting yourself in as much danger as the person you stop to help perceives they are in from you.
It can be just as scary to accept kindness from a stranger as it is to offer it and I will always be grateful to that kind man who stopped to help me, a true damsel in distress.