I Know the Good Samaritan – Do You?
We live in the world that is too often full of pain and misery. We live in a world with to do lists too long to complete and pedestals too high to climb. We wear masks to hide who we really are in an effort to meet the expectations of too many people in too many places. And in our frenzy to try to be successful by the world’s standards we rush right by so many important things. In the end, if we don’t slow down, if we don’t turn from the race to please the world, if we don’t take off the mask, we will become beaten and bruised by Satan’s lies and vicious games.
But it doesn’t have to be so! I know THE Good Samaritan! He is the only one who can conquer Satan. He walks with us through the world’s nightmares – our Help in trouble – our strength through the fire. He binds our wounds, removes our masks, and pays the penalty for our sins. He is the author of all that is good. He is our Savior. He is Jesus Christ.
And he commands us to love one another as we love ourselves to be a Good Samaritan to our neighbors.
I am happy to say I have met the Good Samaritan.
He is my dad, Lester Perky. I grew up watching my dad reach out and help people as naturally as he breathes in air – so much so that I am not sure there is anyone who really knows everything he has done to help others. He has an innate ability to sense when someone needs something, and he isn’t happy until he has figured out a way to fulfill that need. He is so good at it that he often fulfills a need before the person realizes they have it!
He is my Uncle Walter, my dad’s brother. There wasn’t anything my uncle wouldn’t do for friends, family, and strangers alike – including pitching in to help me when I was a young mother with four young kids and helping dress one of my daughters for church. If he had it, it was yours. And obviously he wasn’t afraid to lend a helping hand to anyone who needed it.He is my brother, Steve Perky, who has the ability to look into your eyes and sense when you are hurting. He has the gift of laughter that uplifts you when you are down and a way of just listening when all you need to do is talk. He is the only person I know who ends a conversation with me by asking how he can pray for me.
The Good Samaritan was my brother, Kevin who spoke few words but when he did they were either very important or they left you rolling on the floor with laughter. He had the gentle touch of a nurse/paramedic that came straight from the heart, but even from his hospital bed he rescued many “beaten and broken” people from the byways.
The Good Samaritan is my husband Stephen Kelley who has the ability to strike up a conversation with just the right person at just the right time that they are needing someone who will just listen to them. Amazing how often this has opened doors for him to minister in different ways.
The Good Samaritan is my son, Kyle Kelley who gives of himself so selflessly to his wife and son. He has a heart for the future of his middle school students that few of us comprehend. He has an amazing ability to communicate the Word of God to them so they understand and accept.
The Good Samaritan is my future sons-in-law, Jesse Smith and Steven Price, who gave up their Spring Breaks to come and help take care of their future mother-in-law while she was recuperating from surgery. I am sure they would rather have spent time with their families or doing something fun yet they were here loading my dishwasher, sitting with me in the hospital, cooking for me, running errands for me – the list goes on and on.
I am so grateful my daughters have chosen Godly men like these to spend their lives with! And I am so thankful for their parents who raised them in the Word of God – raised them to be Good Samaritans. The Good Samaritan doesn’t have to be male – I have just chosen to list men here – and I could have written an entire blog post on each one of them. I could list just as many women, but I will save that for another day.
Being a Good Samaritan doesn’t require big, time-consuming flashy activities. In fact, the thing I notice about these particular men is that being a Good Samaritan is not so much just something they do once in a while but the way they live. It could be as simple as holding the door for someone to letting someone ahead of you in traffic. It could be changing a flat tire for someone or mowing someone’s lawn. It could be the way they treat their waitress or the way they take time to strike up a conversation with the checkout clerk. The list is only limited by the needs of the people around them. And it isn’t just the way they live – it is an attitude – an attitude born out of God’s original command to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all you strength, and all your might.” It is an attitude that shines the light in the darkness as we represent Jesus to the world.
But being A Good Samaritan isn’t the same as being THE Good Samaritan. While being a Good Samaritan shows the world God’s grace and mercy by loving others as ourselves, only The Good Samaritan – God – can bring salvation.
My life has been touched by the Good Samaritans in my life – I thank God for blessing me with them – and so many others – some I don’t even know – who have touched me and those I love in so many ways.
But my life has been changed by THE GOOD SAMARITAN. He has given me life eternal.
I know Good Samaritans.
I hope you do, too.
More importantly, I know THE Good Samaritan.
I pray you do, too.
If you don’t, please respond to this blog. I’ll be happy to introduce you!
And I am to BE a Good Samaritan.
I have had awesome examples.
I hope I am able to bless others half as much as they have blessed me!
Robin Kelley
I am just an ordinary middle-aged woman striving to make a difference one word at a time. . . no matter what hat I am wearing at the time.
