Extend A Helping Hand

A weary, downtrodden man was trapped in a deep dark hole that he could not get out of and he had been desperately crying out for help for a very long time.

Finally, a wealthy gentleman showed up and the man in the hole pleaded with him to help him climb out.

The wealthy man responded by pulling a thick wad of bills from out of his pocket and threw the money down into the hole.

“Thank you for the money, sir” said the man in the hole, “but it won’t help me get out of here”.

“Well, I don’t know what else I can do,” replied the gentleman. “I did my best”. And then he walked away, leaving the other man trapped in the hole.

Next, a “Man of God” happened upon the scene and the trapped man pleaded with him for help.

The “Man of God” got down on his knees and kindly said, “I will pray for you, brother.” And then he went on to pray for a very long time, asking God to help the man get out of the hole.

After quite some time had passed, the man in the hole sadly looked up at the “Man of God” and said, “I really do appreciate your prayers, but they aren’t helping me. I’m still stuck down here”.

Rising, the “Man of God” said, “I’m very sorry, brother, but I did my best. I just don’t know what else I can do”. Then he walked away.

More time went by and when the trapped man had reached the point where he was about to give up, another man walked up and gazed down into hole.

“Oh, help me,” pleaded the man. “I have been down here for a very long time and I can’t get out”.

In the next instant, the man jumped down into the hole, joining the man who could not get out”.

Astonished, the man shouted, “What are you doing? Now both of us are trapped down here”.

“No we aren’t ,” came back the man who had just joined him. “Some time ago, I was in a hole just like this one and I’m going to show you how to climb out.”

I believe that the moral of this story is obvious. In order to effectively help those who are needy or troubled, we must become directly involved. We must reach out to them and give them a helping hand. Or else, we must take the time, and expend the energy, to set a positive example for them and to personally lead them to higher ground.

For example and as I have mentioned on these pages before, I am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Quite fortunately and because of the grace of God, I have not ingested a narcotic substance in nearly two years. Today, I am a sober person and I am nowhere close to being down in the deep, dark and filthy hole that I was trapped in for many years.

So, what I am doing now is going all out to give back some of the blessings that I have received. And I am accomplishing that by doing such things as voluntarily visiting jails and detoxification-psychiatric facilities to offer guidance and encouragement to the down-and-out people who are confined to those kinds of places, and I give motivational speeches to large groups of sick and recovering addicts as often as I can.

What I am driving at is we live a world that is occupied by numerous desperate and seriously-wounded people who are badly in need of helping hands. And sure, such people do need charitable contributions and prayers but what they need even more is for those of us who are more fortunate than they are to show up in their lives and provide them with direct or hands-on assistance.

Those of us who are relatively well off must find a little time in our busy schedules to do such things as run errands for our elderly or housebound neighbors, tutor children who need help with their school work, do volunteer work in hospitals, serve meals in soup kitchens, provide whatever guidance we can to those who are lost, and help the unskilled to prepare for jobs.

In fact, when it comes to providing assistance to those who are needy, troubled or down on their luck, the possibilities are limitless. The only thing that one has to do is sit down and come up with ways that he or she can make some kind of a contribution to the well being and/or advancement of others.

Finally, I believe that if a large and ever-growing number of us make constant and consistent efforts to extend helping hands, many of the problems of the U.S., as well as the world as a whole, will rapidly become far less critical than they are.