Stopping to Help

For me, the concept of bringing good into situations is all about learning to sieze moments where people are in need rather than ignore them. I think Daniel touched on this the other day in his post.

This morning, while traveling on I-5, an older man hit the side divider (or was hit by a truck- it was unclear), popped his tire, and proceeded to block traffic in one lane of the two-lane exit. A man in the truck ahead of him pulled over immediately to help him out. Being that I was on my way to an appointment in five minutes, and "had to keep my schedule and be on time," I was planning to make a swerve to avoid the situation, but then when the man's car started to head out to block both lanes, I stopped because then I had to help. We ended up pushing this guy's car out of traffic. For a while, he was holding his chest and not talking, so we thought he was having a heart attack. I don't think that ended up being the case because he was probably just frightened from the tire blow out because after about five minutes he calmed down and was able to communicate. The point though is that this guy needed help. I was there to help, but truthfully I really only stopped when it came to the point where it was clearly my duty to do so because a serious accident could've occured had his car proceeded to block both lanes.

This is not a lack of giving myself grace, but I want to become the type of person where it is my natural inclination to give a hand immediately, the first time, the inconvenient time, the time when nobody else has stopped.

This all comes back to the concept that it may always be "inconvenient" to love and to sacrifice and to take a stand for those who are powerless or trampled upon or forgotten.

NOTE: To all contributors, it is fine if we have multiple postings per day if it ends up like that. I know I have been posting a lot because there has been much on my mind lately. :)