Most of you know the word “empathy.”
Webster’s dictionary defines it as the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another without the feelings, thoughts, and experience communicated in an objectively explicit manner.
I like to think of empathy as understanding and sharing the feelings of another. And I really love the mental picture of “coming alongside.”
One writer (Eugene Peterson in the Message) says it this way:
“He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us.”
Sympathy is great - there is a place to express and receive sympathy.
But empathy . . . I’m feeling all the heart emojis! Haven’t you had times in your life when you didn’t want someone to feel sorry for you, you just wanted them to “come alongside?”
That’s what the Lord has been putting on my heart - to “walk alongside” someone who is hurting, broken, alone, scared, or lost.
The Greek word for comfort in 1 Corinthians 1:4 is from the same word (“parakletos”) used in John 14:26 when Jesus promised the Holy Ghost (Comforter) would come.
He is our perfect example. His Spirit in us “comes alongside” and we are never alone. We, in turn, look for others to “come alongside.”
Let’s pray this week that God would give us the name of someone we can “come alongside” A prayer, a card, a text, a hug - let someone know they are not walking alone.
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