Empathy is a challenging word. What does it mean to attempt to try to understand or relate to the feelings and pain of another? I was sitting at an event in Dallas tonight when someone declared empathy to be an act of imagination. I was moved by these words and wondered where I lack imaginative empathy. I think it is true that if we begin to empathize and thus struggle with others then we are able to free our self from the self. Those who remain trapped in selfishness are trapped by their own lack of imagination. Maybe it takes empathy to break down barriers and our choice to be empathetic can help those whose minds and hearts our blocked. Maybe together we can imagine our hearts changed toward those we hate and who hate us…the enemies…so that both peace and love might be known now in a world of hate and hurt. We pray that we might gain the imaginative power to empathize with our neighbors and our enemies as freely and graciously as we empathize with our self…in the name of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
Amen.
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