By: Denny-

It was a bitterly cold winter that day in 1988 with wind chills well below zero. I was hauling a trailer load of grapefruit which I had picked up the day before in Pharr, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley on the Mexican border. I was headed back home to Iowa with my destination and delivery point being the Fareway Foods grocery warehouse in Boone, Iowa. I ran hard yesterday and made it north of Dallas before pulling into a truck stop and crawling into the sleeper bunk to catch a few hours of sleep. I hit the road early in the morning and stopped at Pauls Valley, Oklahoma to have breakfast and refuel. As I was pulling back onto the I-35 on-ramp, a young man was standing there in the freezing cold holding a sign that simply said, “Iowa”. I wasn’t in the habit of picking up hitchhikers, and many companies don’t allow riders for liability and insurance reasons, but things were different back then. By appearances he didn’t strike me as one who would pose any kind of threat or danger, but still one must exercise caution. I usually will ask God yes or no, in this case I sensed He was saying yes, so I stopped and told the kid to climb aboard. He was thankful to get out of the cold having been standing there quite a while. As we traveled, I learned he was low on funds and was trying to get back home to Iowa for the holidays. We crossed the border into Kansas shortly before noon. At that point I-35 becomes the Kansas Turnpike and the exits are fewer and farther apart. About 5 miles north of the toll booth I spotted a car on the shoulder and about 1/4 mile down the road and walking was a young couple with a little girl. They were obviously in need of help, so without hesitation I pulled over and picked them up also. The only room I had was in the sleeper bunk, and they squeezed back there, happy to be in the warm truck. They were freezing cold and only wearing light coats, so I cranked up the sleeper bunk heater. The man told me their car either broke down or they ran out of gas. They sat in the car hoping someone would stop, but when nobody did and it was getting cold, they decided to walk. He said even then nobody would stop, but just blew right past them. It’s unbelievable that people could be so indifferent, self-absorbed, calloused, and uncaring; especially seeing they had a little girl. The next exit was 20 miles down the road, and I took them to a truck stop where they could get help. I left the other kid in Des Moines and wished him well with spending Christmas with his family. It felt good to have helped those people, a blessing I would have missed had I not stopped.

Stopping a loaded 18-wheeler within a short distance to help someone on the side of the road is not always easy or practical, but there are dire situations when in good conscience you must. In those instances when I couldn’t stop, I would pray and ask God to send someone else that would be able to help those in need. Of course nowadays nearly everyone has a cell phone, so help is only a phone call away, but it doesn’t take much time to stop and ask if they need help anyway.  I wonder how often people these days pass by opportunities to help someone else in need, and not just on the highway. It seems they are so focused on their own needs and desires that they are oblivious to those of others. Perhaps wavering from their schedules or agendas would be too much of a hassle, sacrifice, or require giving up their own precious time. Maybe their hearts are so hardened that they choose to ignore the pleas of others, because as the Bible says, “Having  eyes they don’t see, and having ears they don’t hear.” It also says that in the Last Days the love of many will grow cold. Worse yet is when people judge others and point to their bad decisions or lack of planning that brought about their current desperate situation. How willing would you be to help someone of a different race, ethnicity, religion, economic status, ideology, or a complete stranger not part of your own group? Actions speak louder than words, so basically what people say by their inaction is, “Send Someone Else”. What if you are that someone else that God is trying to send? Will you ignore Him also? God, forgive us all for those missed opportunities and times we’ve failed to help someone in need that has crossed our path. We may be the one who is in need down life’s road another time.

In Luke 10:29-37 Jesus told this parable of the good Samaritan to a man who asked, “Who is my neighbor?” (my words added in parenthesis) One day as a Jewish man (Christian) was walking along the road, thieves attacked and robbed him leaving him half dead on the road. A priest (or pastor) came by and seeing the man passed by on the other side of the road. A Levite (church leader) came by and did the same.  A Samaritan (unbeliever), who the Jews shunned, stopped and seeing the man had compassion, bandaged his wounds, put him on his animal (car), took him to an inn (motel) and took care of him. The next day when he departed, he gave the inn keeper money and told him to take care of the man, and upon his return he would cover any additional expenses. In verse 36 Jesus asked, “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” The man answered, “The one who showed mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”  I think Jesus is telling us to do the same thing.  1 John 3:17  But whoever has this world’s goods, and seeing his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? Reading Matthew 25:31-46 should be a wake-up call to us all and should shake us to the very core of our souls, especially verses 40 and 45.

Through Adam sin entered the world and all of mankind to this present day find themselves lost, broken, destitute, without hope, standing on the side of the road as it were, needing to be rescued and saved. God gave his commandments and laws to Moses. They stopped to give aid, but could not save us. They only served to make us realize the pitiful state of our condition and inability to measure up to God’s holy standards. “Send Someone Else” Next, good works and religion pulled over and tried to convince many that they could rescue themselves by trying harder to be better. That always fails miserably! “Send Someone Else” Many others such as false religions, humanism, idle worship, picked up some only to drop them off a little further down the road on the shoulder in their same lost condition. “Send Someone Else”, but there was no one else – until Jesus. He alone is the only “Someone Else” that God sent to save us. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave (sent) his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners (laying broken on the shoulder of life’s highway), Christ died for us. Jesus didn’t say, “Send Someone Else”, but instead said, “I will go rescue and save them, send Me”.

Are you willing to be sent by God to meet the need of another, or will your attitude and excuse be like the one who passes by saying, “Send Someone Else”.