THE MAN THE GOOD SAMARITAN HELPED

There is a Biblical story many of us - Christian or not- are familiar with. It is the story of the good Samaritan. The story, in brief - a Jewish man beaten and left in a ditch is overlooked deliberately by two religious men. Yet his supposed natural enemy, a Samaritan, rescues him and attends to his wounds.

Recently I became fascinated by the man in the ditch. He was attacked by thieves, stripped of his clothing, thrown in a ditch and left to die. I imagine that because he was not dead - there were moments of consciousness where he probably thought to, tried to or even did cry out. My fascination with this man in the ditch? I, for several months, have been much like him. Except my thieves have been lingering negative and defeating mindsets.

Because I did not dig deep enough in life detoxification periods, they were very present and very active. So my inner thieves, particularly in a major area of my life had stripped me of a significant part of my integrity, my faith in God, my belief in myself and in my ability to position myself for success. Many of us are the man in the ditch - not because of what others did to us - but because of our bad decisions, emotional decisions, decisions without wise counsel.

When we do not pay attention to the subtle and often loud warnings we become both victim and perpetrator. We end up in a self-created ditch and even worse we get major attitude when someone pass us by. Frustrated, filled with pride and ashamed - our cries for help grow quiet and sit wearily in our spirits until something pushes them up and out. We release our pride and release our request for help and a step out of the ditch is underway.

Make a decision today to come out of your ditch. Write a brief story about how you ended up in the ditch; then take action. With every WHY in the story - list a HOW you can overcome that WHY. Now challenge yourself - set a realistic goal date to succeed in overcoming step by step. I say realistic goal date because we put ourselves back in a ditch when we set a goal to get out of $25 thousand in debt in three months. We then commit to others something that is not feasible nor intelligent. Most importantly, take your eyes off of who has and who is passing you by as you wallow in your ditch. Instead focus on this - there is a Samaritan who will finally come along and provide compassion, according to what he/she is is able to do and according to what you really need.