1 Min Read – Lifetime practice! 😁
With families, businesses, schools, churches, communities being ripped apart as we grapple with the impact of a global infectious disease on a rampage, THE BIGGEST HUMAN NEED we have right now is EMPATHY!
One of the most earth shaking moments of our lives happened a few years ago when we lived in Europe. We were sitting with a colleague of ours chatting about the repairing relationship with Israel and Germany.
At one point in our conversation, this colleague stopped mid sentence, paused and looking at us said, “RELATIONSHIP OVER BEING RIGHT. This is what it has to come down to.”
The ground shook for us because as a generation we have been taught to stand up for our rights.
But there is something more to stand up for right now, our relationships with each other.
How do we do that?
Begin with EMPATHY.
Empathy isn’t about agreeing with others, it is about valuing the person and the connection.
Empathy is about seeing as others see on a experience or moment.
Empathy is about being judgement free as we hear their perspective. A real challenge when we love judgement as our go to tool for dealing with awkward situations!
Empathy is about acknowledging this is a human being that has value. They are not an object, they have feelings.
Empathy is communicating perhaps one of the most powerful messages especially in a season when ISOLATION has been so much of our everyday experience. Empathy says, “I SEE YOU! YOU MATTER.”
As Brene Brown said, “The truth is that rarely can our response make something better, what makes something better is connection.”
Empathy is about connection and kicking out everything, pandemic or other, that hacks away at our connections.
So what if next time you chose relationship over being right?
By the way, today the relationship between Israel and Germany has so been repaired that the Israeli Government considers Germany to be Israel’s 2nd best friend behind USA.
What makes something better is connection.
FREEDOM PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that you see us and that you see us without judgement and through the eyes of Jesus. You are perfect empathy! Wow! Holy Spirit we ask for your power to help us do the hard work of love and to love well. Would you help us to pursue relationship over being right? Would you help us to choose love and keep hate, division and disconnect out of our relationships? We declare the name of Jesus and blood of Jesus over all our relationships. Thank you we get to partner WITH you in this! Amen!
“Helen’s teaching around shame was eye opening and showed me how I was constantly living under shame. The course helped me change the way I think about myself and how I live day to day.
“Shame is that painful feeling I am not good enough” and this course taught me how to build habits into my life to come against this and other shame statements I have believed.
“We are never not going to experience shame but we can move through it and not be defined by it.” I am no longer defined by my shame experiences.
Highly recommend the Living Courage course.“
– Sandy, School of Faith Leader, Australia