Overcoming Our Territorial Bent

Monday, July 31, 2023
Listen to this devotional:
Listen while you read: "Blest Are The Pure In Heart"1 (Lyrics)

I didn't think I wanted very much. I simply needed a lightbulb to replace the blown-out bulb in the utility room of the hospital ward where I was the charge nurse that night, years ago. I quickly discovered that this procedure was not my territory. Lightbulb-changing belonged to the maintenance department — not the nurses! I dutifully submitted a requisition. Next evening, I gratefully returned to a lit-up utility room.

Interestingly, our territorial bent spilled into staff lunchbreak arrangements. Registered nurses ate at one table, nurses' aides ate at another table, janitors at another, doctors had their own room, and I can't remember where maintenance ate.

Indisputably, our lives are anchored by our territorial bent, sometimes for good reasons. It helps us to know where and how we fit in. It fulfills our legitimate need for belonging and affirmation.

However, this territorial bent can restrict our human potential. We are less inclined to solve problems outside of our own territory. We resist others from doing what's our job. We may alienate the undeserving or overlook the outsider, and within our likeminded group, it feels right. Thus, unbeknownst to us, our capacity to love becomes rigid and deficient, violating God's supreme law: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27b NIV)

One day, Jesus noticed this deficiency among His listeners. To help them discover this blind spot in themselves, He told a little story, the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. It tells how a priest and a Levite each intentionally walk past an assaulted victim lying in the ditch. A Samaritan traveller comes along and accomplishes what they both fail to do, even though they have the capacity. He assesses the situation, plans a strategy, and provides first aid. His donkey becomes ambulance service. He arranges care at a nearby lodging, covers the cost, and promises to follow up. That's astonishing!

More astonishingly, this Samaritan expects no praise or renumeration, for the person he helps is Jewish, from enemy territory! Meanwhile, the victim's own socio-religious authorities have deprived one of their own from even minimal care. They abandon him! How has this victim in the ditch fallen outside the territory of their moral responsibility?

That question confronts us all. Humanity overflows with a capacity for good, yet is littered with abandoned victims incapacitated by woundings for which no one claims responsibility. Who will be a good Samaritan to them? Who will give of themselves, regardless of the cost to their dignity, comfort, or even their lives? Who is fully free to love as Jesus commanded, saying, "Love each other as I have loved you." (John 15:12b NIV)

Who can? No one! C.S. Lewis underscores that truth in Mere Christianity, saying, "The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues is that we fail. … No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good."

Thus, as fallen sinners, we are the wounded victim in the ditch. Here we discover our one common territory, and Christ is our Good Samaritan. His mercy has no territorial limits.

Prayer: Lord, empower us with Your healing love which alone can overcome our territorial bent. Amen.

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About the author:

Diane Eaton <d.eaton@bmts.com>
Paisley, Ontario, Canada

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1 Comment

  • PresbyCan Feedback says:

    Thanks, Diane, for the challenge.


    Thank you, Diane, for sharing this truth with me.


    Thanks, Diane, for another of your encouraging and very mindful devotionals. Blessings for these writings you do.


    Well said, Diane. We see this so much even, or especially, Christians who want to control whatever area in which they are working.


    That’s an awesome devotional Diane! I needed a good Samaritan when I fell two weeks ago! And the Lord provided! How I thanked her!


    Thanks for your devotional.
    How true.
    Hope you are well.


    Thank you for sharing this encouraging devotional with us today. Amen and amen! It’s too easy to think, “That’s not my responsibility!” Blessings.


    Thank you so much once again Diane for this meaningful devotional. I especially found your closing prayer one to repeat over again and again.
    God’s best to you!


    Good morning, Diane.
    “Thus, as fallen sinners, we are the wounded victim in the ditch. Here we discover our one common territory, and Christ is our Good Samaritan. His mercy has no territorial limits.”
    Thank you for those good, encouraging, and true words.
    Blessings.


    Thank you for your thoughts today, Diane. Last week I heard an expression new to me.
    It was “Not my circus, not my monkeys!” Although funny, it expressed the idea that some things are not my business, so I’m not getting involved. It is easy to pass by a need I could help to assume it belongs to some other entity. But when it comes to helping someone in immediate obvious need, I need to remember who is my neighbor.


    Good morning, Diane,
    As you know I always appreciate your devotionals. I am reading a book of devotionals by David Powlison which has many helpful truths. This week I have been struck by the fact that Jesus was angry about the way the religious leaders had made the temple into a “den of thieves” Matthew 21:13 but shortly thereafter he died for those same religious leaders giving them and us a way back to God.


    Hi Diane. Thank you once again for providing me with a thought-motivating nugget of wisdom. While I thought I was familiar with the Parable of The Good Samaritan, one sentence in your devotional jolted me upright, and now I read the story with new eyes… “Thus, as fallen sinners, we are the wounded victim in the ditch”.
    As well, the quote from C.S.Lewis is a keeper, and I have added it to my file of Quotes.
    Something to think about! Amen!!
    (ON)


    Thank you, Diane, for your words; powerful take on this familiar story.

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