Get Off Your Donkey

I was speaking to a group of church and community leaders about Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. I pointed out that loving our neighbors is apparently a big deal to Jesus, since in the story the command to serve others ranks right up there with the instruction to love God. I commented that with his tale, Jesus gigged religious people for missing the point. The hero of the story—with suspect spiritual credentials for the church crowd—is the only person who reflects God’s heart for the person in need.

“The moral of the story,” I quipped, “is that you have to get off your donkey to help somebody.” The few people who giggled in the audience made me realize what I had just said.

A few months later I was asked to speak at a denomination’s annual tribal gathering. I decided again to speak on the Good Samaritan story, and remembering the earlier episode, I responded with a tongue-in-cheek reply to an email requesting the title of my talk. “Get Off Your Donkey!” was what I sent in, thinking I would get some sort of fun exchange going. I never heard back. Weeks later I learned that the program had been printed with the title, the production team apparently oblivious to the joke. Maybe if I had substituted King James language for donkey, they would have gotten it! The import of the title was not lost on the crowd, however. We had great fun together as I prodded them to take action.

As a conference speaker, I travel a lot. “What kind of business are you in?” is a frequent question I get asked by airplane seatmates strapped alongside me for the ride.

“I work in leadership development,” I usually say. That response typically generates a follow-up question.

“Who do you work with?” they ask with interest. “Mostly with church leaders,” I reply.

“Uh-huh,” they typically respond, returning to their smart phones or laptops, their enthusiasm level noticeably dampened.

Then I say, “I’m trying to help them get out of the church business and into the people business.” This comment generally provokes interest and sometimes fascinating conversation. In case they don’t know Jesus, even if they attend church, I want them to know that he actually is in the people business.

What does this discussion of airplane chatter have to do with getting off donkeys? Simply this: I don’t know what business you are in (education, the social sector, for profit enterprise, health care), but ultimately you want to be in the people business. Why do I say this? Because helping people is the best part of life! If you don’t discover this truth and act on it, not only will your neighbors’ needs go unmet, but you will never be whole. And if that’s not reason enough to motivate you to love your neighbor, know that the further consequences of your inaction will guarantee a diminished future not just for them and for you but also for our whole society.

The toll of institutional failure in American government, education, finances, and health care—and yes, even the church—is resulting in catastrophic loss for millions. The cost is not only devastating in individual terms; the future of our country is at stake. The Great Recession and its aftermath have raised a specter of a “new normal” that signals the possible twilight of American civilization. The creativity and resiliency that have been hallmarks of our culture are eroding away to a mind-set colored by a lack of confidence and pessimism that is sapping our resolve and threatening our capacity to meet these challenges.

This does not have to be twilight in America. Not if we take personal responsibility for loving our neighbors as ourselves, for meeting needs as we are able. It is time for all of us to get up off whatever we’re sitting on and help somebody!