Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Mark 14:8

George Mueller, the man who was responsible for the feeding of thousands of orphans in England during the 1800s used to say, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and so are his stops!”

If you are a “have a plan and work your plan” sort of individual, the kind who uses an organizer or makes lists, those stops are not so pleasant. Interruptions mess up your day, and, if you are like I am, you think of interruptions in a negative light. When people interrupt your schedule, you strive to be polite but the longer they take your time, the more restless you get—at least internally.

When the man whom we call “the Good Samaritan” started on his journey that morning, his schedule didn’t call for time out to address the needs of the man he encountered near Jericho, lying bruised and bleeding by the side of the road. Two others, too busy or disinterested to bother, had made the decision to glance away, and kept moving.

He stopped, forgetting his schedule and took time for the poor fellow who had been a victim of something no less cruel than that inflicted on someone who is a victim of a drive-by shooting today.

He not only stopped to help, but he took the poor man to the nearest inn, taking care of him personally for the night. In the morning, without a flicker of hesitation, he reached into his purse and took out two pieces of silver to cover the cost of his staying in the inn.

Seeing a need, he responded with compassion.

Today we are confronted with a barrage of images that confront us on TV, in the news, and in full-color publications. So we usually do one of two things: we quickly hit the channel changer and refuse to look, or else we become desensitized, immune to what we watch as though the images are mannequins or computer-generated images—not real people.

How do you know when to close the door of your heart and turn off the emotional switch, or do what the Good Samaritan did—get involved? The fact is you can’t respond to all of the world’s maladies. Neither can I. But when God puts someone’s need directly in front of me, and I practically stumble over it, I hear a small voice within my heart saying, “Look, God won’t hold you responsible for what you can’t do, but He does hold you accountable for what you can do, and you can do something about this need so DO IT and do it NOW.”

As Golda Meier once said, “If not I, who? And if not now, when?”

I faced that as I stood in front of a ditch in Ukraine recently, when the director showed me the rotten steam pipes leading into an orphanage, telling me that unless they found the funds to replace them by the time snow flies, there would be no heat for the children. This was not theatrics, but simply the way it was.

I also faced that when Herman Manalo’s small house was destroyed by fire, and they escaped with nothing but the clothes they wore.

OK, where do you draw the line and say, “Enough!”? The answer to that question is the response Jesus made when a poor woman was criticized for anointing Jesus’ feet with costly perfume. Some hypocritically criticized her saying, “This could have been sold and given to the poor.”

“Let her alone,” said Jesus, “She has done what she could.”

Friend, when you stumble across a need, do what you can—neither more nor less, and when you do what you can, that will be enough.

Resource reading: Luke 10:25-37.