Empathy

I’m a big fan of empathy and the day I stop feel empathy is a worrying one indeed. It’s not without its pain tho. The worst moments of my life have been when my children have been hurt and I have not been able to protect them from it. To begin to imagine a person’s pain and not be able to alleviate it is so very hard.

I’m glad I’m not God. I’ve said before I don’t believe in an interventionist God, and I wonder what it’s like, when there must be so many people all at once experiencing such devastation - to see those you love feeling despair and doubt and not being able to do anything to help. Does God weep alongside that person? Feel massively frustrated? – or is that not God’s style at all? Does God hope and trust that the person will find inspiration from those around, and that those around will be inspired to do the reassuring and comforting that God can only do through people?

I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s right to trust, to hope, to love and that I may not be able to fix another person’s pain but I can remind them again and again that they are loved beyond measure and that love ALWAYS wins.