The Power of Empathy

Have you been at a breaking point in your life, a crisis, a tragedy, a low time, and you just wished you could talk to someone who could relate?

There are people who SAY they understand and then there are people who REALLY understand.  

Empathy is a powerful gift.  If we're honest, most of us wish we couldn't relate to people's tragedies because that means we have had to face some tough trials in our own lives.  But the amazing thing about trials is that God uses our trials to comfort others.  

I remember (vividly) when I started having panic attacks and faced severe depression after my first baby was born.  I was so afraid that I was going to live the rest of my life in that state.  I looked at other "normal" people and was so hurt that I would never feel normal again.  I would never be happy again.  I would never enjoy life again.

A pastor on staff with us who was in the middle of a fight with bone cancer took me aside one day, and told me how depression had consumed him for months.  I couldn't believe it.  He seemed pretty normal to me.  He was able to laugh.  To enjoy life. To smile.  He told me that I was in a season that would pass.  That gave me such hope to know he had been there and come out the other side.

Sure, there were many others who offered words of encouragement and prayers, and all of those gestures were very meaningful, but there is something very powerful about empathy and testimony.

There were also others who judged me because I was a depressed, anxious Christian.  How is that possible?  I must not have had enough faith for myself.  I needed to just snap out of it.  They had all the "answers" but no compassion or empathy.  Honestly, these "Christian" people made me question the love of Christ.  Was I unacceptable to Him because I was struggling?  Absolutely not!

The people God put in my path who showed empathy, compassion, and unconditional love were truly life savers for me.

I hope you will allow God to redeem your pain by allowing you to comfort someone else who is struggling with life.  And I hope when you face hurts and hurdles in life that you will find an empathetic friend who will help you to come out the other side as an overcomer.

Blessings!