Tag Archives: purposed

day 2047: Digital Handshakes

“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them.”

We get introduced to others over the internet all the time.  I’ve never been really comfortable in how we are to respond. I tend to say, “nice to meet you”, even though it doesn’t really match up at all with what it means to truly meet someone.  So, really what we are doing is making a “digital handshake”.  Like a real-life, analog handshake, there isn’t all that much more there other than a connection, until we go deeper and find the similarities of each other and then it is there that we become truly connected.  That said, it all starts with the first connection, so we should make the most of each digital handshake we are afforded.

The Samaritan could have walked right by the injured man.  Others who were even more likely to have assisted had passed, so it wouldn’t have been much skin off of his back had he just walked on by.  But, he didn’t.  He not only stopped, he engaged.  And this is the example we are given, for a reason.  We have many moments a day that we can choose to either pass by, or we can stop, bend down and engage, way beyond just a glance.  There is someone today who needs us to be the one who goes beyond just the handshake.

Reference:  Luke 10:33-34 (New Living Translation)