3 Rs – Responsibilities

Responsibilities close to home:

On Wednesday I mused on responsibilities in education. With September 1^st approaching the historical (sometimes hysterical) part of my brain thinks about the start of a new school year and responsibilities to staff, children, local families….

This responsibility of care we see in the staff of hospitals, care homes, the social services; it is about skills and vocation, the balance of competency, compassion and care.

Recent conversations with various friends taking up responsibilities within their families include: caring for sick, disabled and handicapped children, adult children and parents discussing power of attorney, arranging for an elderly parent to be taken into a care home…

Jesus on responsibilities:

Jesus, the great teacher, taught that love is not a feeling; it is an action and a responsibility.

He told the story of the man who had been beaten up, robbed and left half-dead. The ‘Good Samaritan’ saw his condition, took responsibility, administered first aid and made sure he was cared for.

Jesus concluded, ‘Go and do the same’. Care and responsibility is not defined or restricted by role, nationality or expectation – and it is to be expressed to the enemy, the total stranger, the ignored, the inconvenient, the damaged beside the road.

Paul Simon:

When you’re weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes
I will dry them all
I’m on your side
When times get rough
And friends just can’t be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down

In this song Paul Simon takes on the responsibility of care for the faint, fearful and friendless, the helpless and hopeless; he will be their ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’.

And some with faith have found divine help and support in one who has taken care and responsibility for them and been a ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ to them.