The Not-So-Good Samaritan: Compassion Over Inconvenience

Question: Can we try an experiment today where we don’t disconnect ourselves from scripture? Let’s not look at Adam as a louse that ruined the future for us, but see him through more compassionate eyes. 

Easy to say what we would do under the circumstances - but we daily crumble under pressures that are nowhere near as intense —- we snap when somebody gets our breakfast or coffee order wrong and it derails our entire day.

We find out who we are and what we’re made of when we go through the intense situations!

What if the real test of leadership isn’t your reach, but what you’re willing to interrupt for? We take a hard look at the Good Samaritan and our own habits of distance, asking why respected people can see pain and still step to the other side of the road. This isn’t a finger-wag; it’s a mirror. We explore how compassion stops being a feeling and becomes a method: notice, approach, bind, carry, pay, and return—each step costly, each step human.

We unpack the tension between impact and inconvenience that so often defines modern leadership and personal growth. If nothing in our mission costs us time, money, or comfort, maybe we’re managing a brand instead of living a calling. Along the way, we confront common excuses—busy schedules, safety concerns, image protection—and show how they quietly convert empathy into apathy. The Samaritan’s example reframes success: love requires margin, and margin is built on purpose, not by accident. Your neighbor isn’t the one who looks like you or can pay you back; it’s the person right in front of you.

We also turn the story inward. Many of us have been the traveler in the ditch—stripped by setbacks, stalled by fear, unable to rescue ourselves. Remembering that rescue transforms compassion from performance into overflow. It soft

Transcript

Rethinking Adam And Our Own Fragility

The Real Test: Influence Or Interruption

Priest And Levite Choose Distance

The Samaritan’s Costly Compassion

Compassion Interrupts Convenience

Who Is My Neighbor, Really

From Performance To Overflow

High Performance Without Mercy Is Ego

Go And Do Likewise

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Welcome back to the Inspiration Station and your Everyday Edge podcast. I am your host, Mr. U. I know this is framed as a podcast episode, but I really want to just talk to you guys. So pardon all of the accoutrements and all of the extras, but this is the platform that is best served for me to talk to you today. So kind of just want to do that. If you're watching us or listening to us for the very first time, firstly, thank you for doing so. In the upper right-hand corner of your screen is a QR code. You can click on that and get access to all of our previous inspiration station episodes where you can kind of see what we do, why we do do it, get a sense of our vision for this particular broadcast. And of course, if you'd like to follow us, by all means, subscribe to our YouTube channel, youtube.com at the call me Mr. You. Or of course, if you're listening to podcasts and you don't really watch podcasts that much, you can jump over to Apple Podcasts, leave us a five-star review, let us know how this episode or these brands of shows resonates with you. And of course, you can follow us there and subscribe to all of our podcast brands there. So thank you again for joining joining us today on the Inspiration Station. I want to just chat with you guys about something that is uh I guess it's near to my heart, but I I'm challenged with something, and I'd love to hear you guys' thoughts on the matter. So I want to jump into a few things here. Uh, we know the story about the good Samaritan. And I just wondered if you know the story about the not so good Samaritans. Just as an opening question, can we try an experiment today? Can you guys indulge me in experiment today? Wherever you are, it doesn't matter what you're doing, you can do this. Is it possible today that we can just, as an experiment, not disconnect ourselves from scripture? What I mean by that is it's routine for many of us, especially those that call themselves believers, to look at Adam, the first man. You know, Adam from the Garden of Eden, who was married to Eve. We tend to look at Adam as some kind of louse, as this loser who just ruined the future for us. But I think we need to see him through more compassionate, humble eyes if that's possible. Why am I saying that today? It's gonna all make sense, I promise you. It's really easy to say what we would do under those circumstances. Oh, I would have done this or I would have done that. I would have never eaten that fruit. I would have never not trusted God. I would never give attention to a snake or a serpent that was talking to me. Easy to say what we would do under the circumstances that he was under. But I challenge you with this that every day, every week, we crumble under pressures that are nowhere near as intense as the ones that we read about in scripture. If Jesus called me in the water, I would have walked all the way to him, I wouldn't have sunk, I wouldn't have paid attention to the winds and the waves and beginning to sink. Easy for us to say from the comfort of our own homes where we got heat and air and water and food in the refrigerator. But we daily crumble under the pressures that are nowhere near as intense as the ones that we read about. As a matter of fact, even if you don't ascribe to the Bible, I would venture to say you still do that even when you watch television, when you watch the news, you would say, I would have never done what that person did. I would have never done what that person did. Easy to say what we do under the circumstances, but we daily crumble under the pressures that are nowhere near as intense or volatile as the one that we're reading or watching. We snap when somebody gets our breakfast order wrong or our coffee order wrong. And it derails our entire day. From seven in the morning to five o'clock in the evening. Our day is ruined because somebody messed up our breakfast order or messed up our coffee order. If you don't get anything else out of this today, I hope you get this part. We find out who we are and what we're made of when we go through intense situations, when we go through the fire. That's how we find out what we're made of. There's a cost to being compassionate. And I believe that that is the standard for leadership. There's a saying, I don't know who uh this is attributed to, so if you know, drop it in the comments. I'd love to get educated on that today. Excuse me. But somebody said that whatever you're angry about, whatever just gets under your skin, that's because you're called to that area. I forgot who said that. You guys remember it? Help me out. Drop it in the comments. I'd love to hear that, and maybe perhaps somebody else that's watching and listening today will be able to do the same thing. But I believe there's a cost of compassion, and that's the standard for leadership. Let's use Luke chapter 10, verse 25 to 37, the parable of the good Samaritan. It's it's on my heart today, it's on my mind the past couple of days. So I want to use that as a uh uh a point of reference what we're gonna talk about today. Let me challenge you with this question today. What if the real test of leadership isn't influence? I think a lot of us think that when you're uh tested as a leader, it's because of your influence. Will people follow you? Will they listen to you? Can you stand up before them and speak? Those kind of things. But what if the real test of leadership isn't influence at all? What if it's interruption? I'll ask that again for those in the back. I want you to hear this today. What if the real test of leadership isn't influence? It's interruption. Most folks I know want impact. Very few people that I know, maybe you do, but few people that I know want inconvenience. And in Luke 10, Jesus tells a story that confronts both of those impact and inconvenience. A lawyer stands up in this text and says, What must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus turns it back on him and says, Love God, love your neighbor. Then he asks the real question, and who is my neighbor? That wasn't curiosity from what I read and study about this particular passage of scripture. That wasn't curiosity, that was self-justifying, self-justification. He wasn't asking who to love, he was asking who he could include or exclude. He wanted to know what the standard was so he can work around it where it was convenient. That's why he asked, Who is my neighbor? And Jesus told him a story that I believe is one of those kind of parables that changed everything. They changed the world, they changed mindsets. They slice through improper mindsets like a hot knife through butter. That kind of story. But you already have the address for Luke 10, 25 to 37. Check this out. A man is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. He's attacked, beaten, stripped, and left half dead on the side of the road. Now, this road is known to be dangerous, so that part is important to understand. Everybody listening would have known that already. Broken people on that road were it was the norm. It was inevitable to not be on a road and be around people who are broken by life, people who are disillusioned by life, people who were angry at the world. That road was full of those kinds of people. But this man decided to travel on that road and he was attacked and beaten and left for dead. A priest comes by. Now you understand if you're looking at priests in the terms of 2026, with all that's going on with the Catholic Church and priests. I understand where you're going or where your mind goes instantly. It's only normal, it's human of us. I want you to understand what the priest was supposed to represent in this time. A person that had direct access to God, direct access to the creator of heaven and earth. When people wanted to petition God, they had to go through the priest to get there. Our priest walks by, he sees the man that by his own uh admission, by his own vocation in life, he's supposed to help that person because of who he represents, because of what he represents, the standard of his life. As a priest, he should help that man. But he does something different. He passes on the other side. Get that now. He saw him. He was looking down at his bow and he just happened to overlook the man. He saw him. Next comes the Levite. These people are descendants of the priest. They are uh very instrumental in the upkeep of the temple, they're instrumental in the creation of music and worship. So they have a certain special connection with God as well. They have a mandate on their life to trust God for their provision and not try to receive it from normal channels like everybody else and other tribes and other nations were doing. They had to solely, completely trust in God and have their confidence in Him. That's their man, that's the standard for their lives as Levites. The Levite gets closer, he looks down, sees the man, and he decides to pass him by as well. The priest and the Levites were all what we would call religious. Both are highly respected, and apparently both are very busy. Maybe they were protecting their schedule, maybe they were protecting their image, maybe they were protecting their ritual purity. Maybe they looked at that as a situation that they used to want to be involved. It really wasn't worth their time. Whatever the reason was, the priests and the Levites saw suffering and they chose distance instead. I'm gonna say that again for those in the back. The priests and the Levites saw suffering, but they chose distance instead. Even if you consider yourself a priest or Levite, can you say today with all honesty that you see suffering and you haven't chose distance? You chose to help, you chose to give, you chose to lend a hand to give support, to give a part of your life and your time to help that person suffer less? Or do you choose distance? Seeing pain is no badge of honor, it doesn't give you any kind of card block or any kind of credit with God. It's not the same thing to see it as it is to respond to that pain. Is it possible you can be spiritually active and be compassionately absent? Is that possible? Jesus began to tell a story, and to me, it's gripping. I'm like, wow, it just hits me in all kinds of places. Hopefully, it does for you as well. But here's the shock of the story. Here's the part, you know, that part of the story. A Samaritan comes by. Understand the Samaritan's history. They are vilified, they used as the cautionary tale in Proverbs and folk tales, and they never come out good in these stories. Samaritans were outsiders, not trusted, not wanted, not respected. If anybody should have passed by this fallen man, the Samarit were expected to do because that's the reputation they had. But the text says when he saw him, he had compassion. Now, watch what now he didn't just have compassion and say, oh wow, they're starving, and then turn the TV channel. He had compassion, but watch what compassion does, because compassion isn't compassion if there's not a corresponding action to it. Are you following me so far? Compassion isn't compassion if there's no corresponding action. If you can look at a TV screen and see starving children or homeless people, and you say you have compassion, but nothing changes, you turn to another rerun of NCIS, then that's not compassion. I don't know what you call that, but it's not compassion. It should be a corresponding action. This is what compassion does. He goes to the man, he binds up his wounds, he pours oil and wine on him, he puts him on his own animal, he brings him to an in. He takes care of him and he pays for his stay at the end. That thing costs two deniri at that time. And then he promises to return and cover any additional costs. Compassion in scripture is never just about emotion, it moves. Compassion moves, compassion acts, compassion pays, compassion covers. If you're building a business right now, if you're building a ministry right now, if you're building a platform, you're trying to build a family right now. This is where the story begins to get to us and kind of press in a little deeper. Compassion is always going to interrupt convenience. I'm gonna say that again. I need you to catch this. This is really important. Compassion interrupts convenience. The Samaritan had somewhere to be too. The Samaritan had plans, the same as the priest and the Levite. But leadership, real leadership, authentic leadership that we talk about in all these networking circles and communities that we're in. Real leadership is measured by what you're willing to interrupt for. Real leadership is measured by what you're willing to interrupt for. If your mission that you're on right now never costs you anything, it's probably just branding. It's not a calling. Secondly, we should already understand this from the life and things that we've learned, but love is expensive. I'm saying that kind of thing when I know there's a time of the year called Valentine's Day where people go all out for the sake of love. They have expensive parties and they buy expensive jewelry and chocolate and wine and flowers to please their significant other. I'm talking about something a little bit different today, though. That Samaritan man gave his resources, he gave his time, he gave his level of comfort away, he gave his money, and he even gave a future commitment saying, I'll come back and pay whatever extra costs might be accrual to your stay in this inn. Real love requires margin. Many people want impact, and maybe I'm not talking about you, but many people want impact without having to invest anything. But I don't know how you have a high-performance life without any kind of sacrifice involved. I want to answer the question that the man asked when Jesus told the story. Your neighbor is whoever's in front of you. They don't have to live in the county you're living in right now. Your neighbor is whoever's in front of you. Jesus flipped the lawyer's question around. The issue is not about, and it should never be about identifying who qualifies for your love. Come on, man. It's time out for doing people like that. That's the way God did us. We all be in a world of trouble, and I mean that very literally. A very deep, dark world of trouble. And Jesus made us qualify for his love. If God made us qualify for his love, it's not our job or our issue to identify who qualifies for this love that we got. Really, not all that. It's becoming the kind of person who is quick to show mercy to people. It's not about deciding who deserves your help. That's not maturity and leadership. It's about cultivating a heart that responds to opportunities to show mercy, opportunities to show compassion. If we're honest, we might be that man on that road, wounded, stripped, unable to help ourselves, unable to get out of the rut, unable to rescue ourselves from the oppressed, the oppressive offense. And Christ came and bound our wounds, paid our debt, he carried us, he took care of us, and he also I love this part, he also promised to return. The Samaritan was walking in the shoes of the Savior. Excuse me. So when you understand that you didn't get to this great place in your life by yourself, you were rescued. Compassion stops being about performance and it becomes about overflow from a heart that's grateful, from a heart that's honoring. Before we close this discussion out. As somebody with paying clients, I that question is powerful. Are you building something right now that only serves people who look like you, think like you, or who can pay you? High performance without compassion is just ego, all dressed up. Influence without mercy is just brand management. We see it all over the social media world. But Jesus ends with a parable, one command, and we're gonna end the episode with that same command. Go and do likewise. Don't go and admire the story, don't go and post about kindness. I know you want to, so bad. Go and feel inspired. I'm not even saying that either. I'm saying go and do something. This week, somebody's gonna be on your road, and you're gonna see them. The question is gonna be whether they qualify as your neighbor, and the question is whether you're willing to be a neighbor to them. That's the standard. That's what this is all about. Thanks for listening to the Inspiration Station and your Everyday Edge podcast.