Empathy is not the same thing as knowing how someone feels. You can’t know exactly how someone feels. And their knowing that you felt the same way isn’t what they need anyway. Empathy is appreciating the need for presence and support that others need in their pains, fears, and losses. Our pains, fears, and losses …
Confession, repentance, and lament can lead to us feeling exposed and fearful about what will happen when we expose ourselves so completely before others. When it comes to God though, we have no reason for fear. When we confess, repent, and lament before God we know that whatever follows it will conclude with the loving …
The wonder of the incarnation is that Jesus lives human emotion. We cry out to a God who doesn’t just know how we feel in our heights and depths. God has felt how we feel in our heights and depths. Hebrews 4:14-15 tells us that we have a great High Priest, Jesus, who sympathises with …
Various empathetic strategies come into play when a hurt or wrong is experienced. The empathetic strategies serve to contextualise or downplay the liability of the perpetrator in such a way that forgiveness is not so much required, but rather an expression of understanding about why the wrongdoing occurred. Perhaps we might think that the incarnation …
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