A bridge too far

You might have read or heard this story last week about the Chinese man threatening to commit suicide who was given a push by a passer-by to speed up the process. Of course, the bridge was only about 26 feet high, and the man suffered only back and neck injuries.

But there is a passer-by on another bridge in China that seeks to save those seeking to commit suicide. Meet Chen Si (pictured). A manager in a transport company by day, he is a super hero on evenings and weekends on the Nanjing Bridge.


The bridge was completed in 1968 and won a place in the Guiness Book of World Records as the longest highway and railway bridge. But it is now notable as a place where more than 1,000 people have killed themselves in the last 40 years.

Chen Si does his best to prevent that number from rising. In one story, Si talks about how he sometimes tackles the men to prevent them from hurling themselves over 100 yards into the swirling waters of the Yangtze River.

Si has been called a Good Samaritan, a guardian angel, a lifeguard and a one-man crusade.

Maybe we could all learn something from this Chinese man who began his patrols after his own grandfather starved himself to death to keep the family from squabbling about who should look after him. As of last summer, Si had saved 144 lives by his own count.

There are plenty of lost souls out there committing spiritual suicide. Are we like the first passer-by, simply giving people a shove because they are inconvenient to us?

Or are we daring to look for those who need help? Are we willing to even tackle those embracing the path to destruction?

Most of the time, I am neither. I am simply the hustle and bustle of traffic going my own way with the neither the time nor the interest in finding out if those souls on the side of the road need my help. And by default, that puts me in the camp of the pusher.

Jesus said, "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me."

And he might have added, "I was standing on a bridge and you did nothing."