But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
- Luke 10:33-34
The TV was blaring. Katherine was sobbing. Isaac was fussing. Andrew, transfixed by the TV, was oblivious. And there was water everywhere.
It was Super Bowl Sunday, and my family had made it through the first half, rejoicing at the extravagance of snacks for dinner and extra screen time. Even baby Isaac, who hadn’t been feeling his best for days, was in relatively good spirits, especially if he was snuggled up against his mom. But as the halftime show began, Lindsey asked where her water bottle—one of the giant plastic cups they give you at the hospital—was. And as I reached down to grab it, my eyes got big: instead of sitting upright, it was knocked over on its side. And the liter of water it had held was all over the floor, seeping into the pile of toys in the corner of the room and spreading under the couch.
Lindsey and I leapt to our feet, startling the kids. She ran to grab towels, and I stood there frozen for a second. The couch needed to be pulled out. The toys needed to be picked up and set aside to dry. We needed to see if anything had been ruined beyond repair. And the water, of course, needed to be mopped up. But with this giant mess before me, what was I supposed to do first?
Sometimes the crisis is so big, so overwhelming, that you don’t know where to start. Your brain gets overwhelmed by all the different things that need to happen, by the desire for a plan, by the fear of what will happen if your solution is the wrong solution. And so you just freeze in place, waiting for the problem to solve itself.
There’s an expression that’s become common over the last few years—to the point that a song in Disney’s Frozen 2 has it as its title—which I really like: do the next right thing. Instead of waiting for a roadmap of the most efficient path to victory, take care of what’s immediately in front of you. Instead of trying to map out the perfect future, deal with the present. Do the next right thing.
In Jesus’ famous parable, when a man was beaten and lying by the side of the road, there were two men who failed to do that. Some have speculated that their lack of aid was motivated by devotion to purity laws—on their way to worship at the temple, they couldn’t risk contaminating themselves by touching a body which might die at any moment. Others say they were too busy to stop, late for an appointment in Jerusalem. Still others think they were worried the bandits who had beaten this man might be nearby. Whatever the case, they talked themselves out of helping.
But the so-called “good Samaritan,” who may well have had some of these same concerns, stopped. He approached the man. He bound his wounds with oil and wine and whatever strips of cloth he had handy. He set him on his own animal. He took him to a nearby inn. And upon arriving there, he made arrangements for the man to stay as long as his needs dictated.
Did the Samaritan have all these steps plotted out the second he spotted the injured man? Did he wait until a master plan presented itself before acting? I doubt it. He simply went to work, and step by step, he did the next right thing.
In a complicated world, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, and to think you need a foolproof strategy before you can make a difference. But in whatever ways you can—the ways you come up with and the ones which present themselves—don’t be afraid to be a helper. Don’t be paralyzed by the scale of the mess—just do the next right thing.
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