Sometimes it’s hard to “Go thou, and do likewise!”

Luke 10:37

“Jesus said to the lawyer, ‘Go and do likewise.’”

In Canton I used to have lunch with the Baptist preacher once a week. One week were coming out of the diner when we saw a poor old man, sprawled out on the sidewalk, head swirling around in a drunken stupor. I thought about just walking by, the old man was quite the mess, but then I thought, “I’m a pastor, for goodness sakes!” I’m sure my preacher friend had the same thought. So, we stopped, did what Jesus called us to do; we showed compassion to the man in need.

“You know we really ought to do something, he could get hurt out here, or worse, someone could take advantage of him.” I said.

“You’re right,” said my friend. So, he got one arm; I got the other, we helped the man get up. He was wobbly, smelled like he hadn’t taken a shower in some time, and it took both of us to keep him steady.

“Easy does it. Watch out for those slippery places in the river,” the man muttered as we guided him to my friend’s car.

“What do we do with him?” I asked. “Do we take him to a hotel? Or should we