No good deed goes unpunished

One of my favourite stories is the one of the Good Samaritan. For those who don't know it, Jesus tells the story of a man who is beaten up on the road to Damascus and left for dead. Three people see the man but it was only the third person who helped - the person who you would least expect. The first two religious men just walked passed him. 

In this day and age, there are lots of opportunities for us to help others who may be in need or may be less fortunate than ourselves. I would like to think that I would help someone in need - that I would be the third stranger going out of my way to help someone. While I studied Psychology at uni, I heard of a story where a woman was attacked and killed on the street and no one did anything. It was just the other day that I read in the news that a woman was a hit by number of vehicles and no one stopped to do anything. We question - how can these things happen? We would like to think that we would step in. But today I had a very strange experience.

As I was walking back to my car after a meal, I could hear someone yelling at me. Being a dark, winter's night, my first thought was to rush back to my car. As I reached the other side of the road, I realised the person yelling was a man in need. Before I could do anything, I realised he was now yelling angrily at me. I asked him if he was okay and he yelled no and continued to call me names. I then chose to leave before the situation became hostile. 

You see, in this day and age, you hear of stories where good deeds don't go unpunished. You hear stories of people who house people in need in their homes and then end up being killed by these same people. Or people who lend a helping hand and that friendship ends up being abused. So now a few hours later I'm wondering what should I have done. Should I have helped, possibly putting myself in harm's way? Or was I right to initially make sure I was safe first?


To be honest, I don't think there is a right answer. Not every good deed goes unpunished and sometimes the problem is we are unwise in the decisions we make when helping people. Or sometimes we do have to risk it all to help people. I know for myself, my help has backfired because I don't always establish boundaries. In any which case, we should never be afraid to help others but we need to use wisdom in doing so - remembering that it's not a perfect science.