You’re probably familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10: a man is traveling, robbed, beaten, and left for dead. First a priest, then a Levite (someone who had temple duties) saw the man, but passed by on the other side of the road. Finally a Samaritan, who was of a race in conflict with Israelites and the unlikely one to stop, took care of the man at his own expense.
Jesus told this story in response to another conversation: a lawyer, knowing that he was supposed to love God supremely and love his neighbor as himself, wanted to know just who his neighbor was. Verse 29 says he asked this “desiring to justify himself.” He probably thought he was doing a pretty good job.
But Jesus’ story upended the lawyer’s assumptions. Our neighbor is anyone in need, even strangers, even enemies. Ultimately, the Good Samaritan pictures Jesus’ rescue of us spiritually.
Even though those are the primary lessons of the parable, I was recently instructed by a secondary consideration.
We like to rag on the priest and the Levite as being typically self-absorbed, “don’t want to get involved” people. We shake our heads at their lack of compassion toward their fellow countryman.
But there is another layer here. Under Levitical law, if a priest or Levite came in touch with a dead body, they would be ceremonially unclean for a certain amount of time. They couldn’t attend to their duties in the temple if they were unclean without performing certain rituals.
So they didn’t even want to take the chance to see if this beaten man was alive. To protect their calling of serving in the temple, they denied their greater calling of caring for a fellow Israelite in great need.
We’ve probably seen this happen in other situations as well. A father feels so responsible to provide for his family’s needs that he becomes a workaholic, neglecting their greater need of his guidance and presence. An overburdened doctor has so many patients that he shortchanges each one of time and attention in order to get through them all. A pastor bypasses a troubled church member seeking his counsel because he’s scheduled to eat lunch with the visiting guest speaker.
I was convicted years ago when I got short-tempered with one of my children when they interrupted me while I was reading a book. Ironically, the book was How to Be a Good Mom.
We can get so fixated on fulfilling what we think is our calling that we miss it entirely.
I struggle with this most now in desiring to write. I feel writing is something God wants me to do. But I’m discovering most writers struggle with making the time to write. I was encouraged in Elisabeth Elliot’s biography that even she struggled with this.
So the natural response is to stake a claim on my time, push people away, and resent interruptions.
But my first calling is to the people under my own roof. It would be wrong to push them away or resent them when they need me.
And if I want to write to encourage other people, particularly women, in their walk with the Lord, I can’t do that by selfishly manipulating my schedule, grasping for time.
So what’s the answer?
I’m still working on that.
But one thing I need to keep in mind is that my first calling is to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love others as I love myself.
And then I need to remember that God’s callings are not in conflict. They seem like they are sometimes. But if He wants us to do something, He’s going to make a way to do it.
We don’t need to be manipulative and grasping. We can prayerfully seek God’s will and leading. We may have to lay aside lesser pursuits.
Instead of being territorial with my time, I need to be generous, trusting God to make it enough.
There is a principle throughout the Bible that if we’re generous, we’ll be blessed. But if we grasp and hoard for ourselves, we tend to lose whatever we’re holding onto so tightly.
There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, And there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in poverty. A generous person will be prosperous, And one who gives others plenty of water will himself be given plenty (Proverbs 11:24-25, NASB).
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 16:25).
Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:38).
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).
On the other hand, being generous with our time doesn’t mean we are always available for everyone else’s whims and can never make plans.
Once, after a busy evening of healing many people, Jesus got up early the next morning to pray alone. The disciples searched for him and told Him, “Everyone is looking for you.” “And he said to them, ‘Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out'” (Mark 1:35-39). He didn’t go back to do more healing in the place where they were looking for Him. Healing was part of His calling, but His greater mission was to preach.
How we need to pray for wisdom and guidance as we seek to serve Him and others each day. As we seek His grace to love Him and others well, He will guide us moment by moment.
Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established (Proverbs 16:3).
To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12).
(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)
Stray Thoughts 