“Jesus wept.”  John 11:35

“I’m telling you Jim, when I see others in pain, I feel pain, too. I don’t have the exact pain—if someone’s foot hurts, mine doesn’t, but I feel a twinge in the pit of my stomach. I want their pain to go away so I don’t feel the throbbing ache for the pain they’re feeling.”

Jim asked me to tell him more.

“Well, it’s not just physical pain. If someone is lonely, I feel emptiness; if a person just lost a loved one, I feel a loss, too. Jim, I really don’t like these feelings; they seem like a curse to me.”

That’s how I felt last week. This week I think differently. Let me tell you what happened during my devotional and prayer Friday morning. The Bible says in Psalm 100:4 “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name,” so I start my prayer with a list of things I’m thankful for. Next I praise God for His blessings. Last week, just as I was starting to praise Him, a thought began forming in my mind, Why do you complain?

To be honest, I dismissed it, and continued to list what I praised God for. When the thought came back, Why do you complain? I stopped. I waited and listened for the Lord to speak to me, but nothing happened, so I started to praise Him again. Then new thoughts formed in my mind.

Do you believe I give gifts to My followers so those who do not know Me will hear My Word, and see Christ in their lives?

“Yes, Lord,” I answered.

Do you believe empathy is a gift just as necessary as preaching or teaching?

“Yes, Lord. I believe.”

I hurt when My children are hurting, the Lord said. I’ve blessed you with a gift of feeling pain for others who are in pain. I've given you the gift of empathy for My children so they may see the pain I feel for them. You can better understand My love for My children if you feel for others—even those you may deem unworthy. Those who can see and know that you feel and care for them will have their hearts softened by My Holy Spirit.

“Oh Lord, forgive me,” I said. “Help my unbelief.”

God weeps as men and women—His highest creations—go to their graves without hope, without heaven, without Christ. Feeling empathy for them no longer seems like a curse. Instead, I see it as the gift it really is.