A few weeks ago, on September 11th, I heard a Focus on the Family message featuring former Secret Service agent Darin Kinder. Mr. Kinder recounts his eyewitness experience on the day of the 9/11 attack.¹ It’s about 30 minutes, about the time it takes me to drive to work. I actually enjoy my daily commute. It gives me the chance to listen to podcasts, audiobooks, and videos I wouldn’t otherwise make time for.
Mr. Kinder has a powerful message. Somewhere around the 7:50 mark, he tells about finding a lady in a stairwell who isn’t capable of helping herself down the remaining 30 flights of stairs. Numerous others flow by her. Most of them are in shock themselves and don’t even realize the lady is there.
In Mr. Kinder’s effort to help the lady, he realizes he can’t help her by himself. At that moment, there’s another man who is walking past. Kinder grabs the man and tells him he’s going to help them. The man “snaps out of it,” as Kinder says, and agrees to help.¹
I couldn’t help but think of a well-known Bible story as I listened, and I bet you know which one I’m talking about… The Good Samaritan. In this parable, Jesus tells the law expert about a man who has been beaten, robbed, and left to die on the side of the highway. A priest came by and kept on walking. He didn’t want to become ceremonially unclean. Then a Levite came, but he too walked on by. It is an enemy from Samaria who helps the Jewish man. An enemy who cleans and bandages the wounds, and then offers payment for him to stay in an inn. An enemy.²
I realize the people’s responses in each story can’t be directly compared. One group of people has just been involved in a massacre. They’re in shock and probably just going through the motions of the people around them. I doubt they even saw anyone else, and if they did, I don’t know if they registered them mentally. But once someone brought the man in the stairwell back to reality, he was willing to help.
On the other hand, in the parable Jesus tells, a priest and a Levite saw the man and chose not to help. They chose not to get involved. Both chose not to help because it would inconvenience them. Helping the man would leave both the priest and the Levite ceremonially unclean. Then who would do their priestly duties while they purified themselves?
What a dilemma. Stop, help, then go through the purification process. Stop, help, and don’t tell anyone. No one would know they were ceremonially unclean unless they tell it or someone witnessed it. Um, others won’t know, but God will. In Leviticus 22:3-4 it says, “For the generations to come, if any of your descendants is ceremonially unclean and yet comes near the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrated to the Lord, that person must be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord.” One surely wouldn’t want that consequence. Final option: don’t stop, don’t help, just keep on walking.
How many times in life do the priests and Levites’ shoes fit me? Too many for me to be okay about it.
Mr. Kinder describes his interaction with the “random dude” on the stairs that day this way: “all he needed was one man with a little bit of vision and a little bit of compassion to bring him along.”¹ I wonder what would have happened if the Samaritan man had grabbed the priest and/or the Levite by the arm and told them they were going to help.
After hearing this video, I’m wondering which I am. Am I the one who needs someone to snap their fingers at me, wake me up, and prod me along? Or am I the other one snapping my fingers at others to pay attention? When there’s a job to be done and a need to be met, do I run to it with solution ideas, or do I have too much going on at that moment? Are my priorities on the Lord, His Word, and His work? Or am I more focused on living life for myself and just helping out when I can?
The second most powerful part of Mr. Kinder’s message is about “answering the bell,” aka the call.¹ How many times in life do I answer the bell to do God’s work? And how many times is my line busy and I don’t pick up?
Needs surround me. They are individual opportunities for me to serve. Some I’m comfortable with; others require stepping out in faith. But every day I have the opportunity to show compassion and serve… if only I’m willing to answer the call.
Perfect example: last night Tim and I went out on a date night… a rare occasion. LOL! We were at a local restaurant, and I saw a former student of mine eating alone. At another table, I saw several former students of mine eating in a small group and having a great time. I got caught up trying to solve questions that weren’t mine to solve. I was trying to figure out “why” in life some people have the gift of community while others do not.
AND I MISSED THE OPPORTUNITY. It was sitting there, staring me right in the face, but I was zoned out and missed it. I desperately needed someone to snap their fingers at me. Grab me by the arm. WAKE ME UP and tell me I could help. All I had to do was ask him to eat with us, or if we could join him.
I write this post after another former student of mine has taken his own life. My heart is broken for him and his mom. I’ve dedicated my life to loving on students and trying to make a difference. Yet this young person felt they had no other choice.
Ya’ll people in this world are hurting. They’re sad, lonely, and they just need us to notice them. To stop and dine with them. No one should be having to eat alone.
Dear God, thank You that I can repent. When I fail, as I do, thank You for snapping Your fingers at me, scolding me, waking me up. I’m sorry I missed the opportunity. Please let me have another one, and Lord God Jesus, please help me not to miss it again.
- Focus on the Family, “The Power of One: Darin Kinder’s Story,” Serving and Surviving in New York on 9/11 – Focus on the Family, accessed September 12, 2026.
- The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV), Luke 10:25–37.