“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
It's the time of the year when churches do Men's Retreats. My church is no different. A few years ago, I was fortunate to
hear the teaching of Dr. John Hull, President of an organization called
InJoy. John spoke on a number of topics but one that struck me was a
session that he did on the well-known story of the "Good Samaritan"
(found in Luke 10:25-37). As I sat and listened and took notes from his
talk, "Strength and Power of Compassion", I was hearing how this story,
which I have heard so many times and is a common term in our everyday
language when someone helps someone else, is so very applicable to our
work lives. I am going to break down into three parts what Dr. Hull
spoke about and relate it to how it is that we can conduct ourselves at
work and make our work environment better for others, more purposed, and
better for ourselves. This is part 1: Facing Reality.
We
all know the story of the Good Samaritan and how he helped the beaten,
robbed and near death Jewish business man as the man had been been
traveling on a dangerous road. Two other people, a Priest and Levite,
had seen the naked man lying on the side of the road and had passed him
by and had not helped him. The Samaritan, who as a people were not
friendly to the Jewish people, which makes the story that much more
powerful, not only stops to help the man but instead but goes above and
beyond to then take him with him and ensure that he gets what he needs
to recover and get back on his feet. Like any of us, the Samaritan had
to have stopped and weighed the consequences and ramifications of his
decision to help the hurt man, before he stopped and stooped over to
help him up to his feet. What was going through his mind had to be
things like, "what is this going to look like to my friends, family and
co-workers if I help this guy?", "how much time and/or money is this
going to cost me?", "what if this guy deserved the beating and I am
taking in someone who is going to rob me next?", and if it was modern
day, I am sure he would have said to himself, "what is my liability if I
help him, will I get sued?". These are all normal and reasonable
questions to ask as he was facing a reality in front of him and deciding
to run away like the other two men or be different and not run away
from the problem in front of him.
Why I thought this is
such a great lesson for us as we try and inject purpose into our work,
is that each and every day we are faced with a reality where we can help
others who are not doing so well and who have been figuratively beaten
down and left to the side of the road. How many times have we been in
meetings where someone was unfairly treated, talked about, or accused
and without the time to defend themselves the conversation moves on and
they are left to the side of the table with their egos bruised, their
feelings hurt and in some cases left worrying about their future within
the company. And what do we do more often than not? We let the
conversation move on without defending them or we let the meeting break
up and we head back to our offices or cubicles without the encouraging
or helping word or hand extended to them. What the story of the Good
Samaritan says is that we are to face the reality that something bad has
happened and we are not to run away but instead reach forward and down
to them to show compassion. What I love about compassionate people is
that they don't run from reality just because reality hurts or will cost
them something. They give of themselves to express their compassion.
And, I will call upon the phrase, "what goes around comes around". If we
are ones who face reality and show compassion to others in the
workplace and try to model ourselves after the Good Samaritan (even to
those in the departments that we just don't like to deal with), then on
the day that we stumble and find ourselves down and out, then just maybe
someone will remember that we were there for them, and they they will
reach down and give us a hand to get back on our feet. The question to
be asked today is, to bring more purpose to your work are you working to
the example of the Good Samaritan and showing the same compassion to
others that the Good Samaritan modeled for us?
Reference: Luke 10:25-37 (New Living Testament)
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