UNLESS YOU ARE BUSY

I watch very little TV. But a show called ‘What would you do?’ looked interesting.

The premise of the show was to see how people would respond to certain situations. In the episode I watched, they were hiring people to expound on camera how they might behave as Good Samaritans. They first summarized the Bible lesson (Luke 10:29-37), and then sent their guinea pigs down the street to a video studio where their answer would be taped. However, an actor behaving as though he was in terrible distress had been strategically planted in the middle of their route.

Some people stopped to help this person seemingly in distress while others just walked on by – elaborating minutes later on camera how they would help anyone they came across in need. Yeah, right!

The program producers explained that the difference between those that stopped to help and those who did not depended on whether their test subject felt they could spare the time. In fact, the producers anticipated this explanation and to test this theory told half the participants they needed to get over to the video studio right away.

But I suspect the difference goes beyond being busy… I think it gets down to attitudes. Who isn’t too busy these days? Are we just too preoccupied with ourselves to be troubled with anything else? One participant explained he stopped to help because he was raised to behave that way. He had been taught the Biblical principal to ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’ (Luke 6:31). And he acted on his convictions rather than his convenience.

These biblical directives are not conditioned on not being inconvenienced. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the good guy made personal sacrifice and even risked harm to himself in order to assist the injured person. “Unless you are busy” is not a responsibility exit ramp; nor is any other excuse.