Blessing, the Power of God in Empathy

Everything that is good in life 
emanates from the purpose of life 
that is Blessing: the power of empathy.

We are nothing, and we have nothing, if we are not connected to our fellow human beings.  Through feeling, seeing, hearing, touching, and tasting life through another person’s life.  Without any creepy sense where they would feel transgressed.  On the contrary, to every sense that they feel blessed from our presence in their lives.  Life is connection to others in safety and care.

Empathy is our capacity to experience 
life through another’s experience.

Empathy is the power to connect to another 
as if we were them: a Blessing.

If we don’t achieve this through our presence in others’ lives, our Christian faith means nothing.  It achieves nothing, and it is in fact a forgery, given that others seeing us as ‘Christian’ don’t associate us with Christ, and potentially worse, associate Christ as something other than love and betterment for them.

CALLING IT LOVE WHEN IT ISN’T LOVE

Let’s not fool ourselves, to the point of abusing another or of corrupting the gift given to us, that our blessing is a blessing when it isn’t a blessing.

The default way of blessing is that we corrupt what is meant for another as blessing, thinking it is a blessing when it isn’t a blessing.

If we call our blessing a blessing 
and it isn’t felt as a blessing to another 
it isn’t a blessing.

Blessing as it pertains to our deeds 
is in the hands of the other.

~

EMPATHY AS A WAY OF FELT BLESSING

Empathy is the only way to the execution 
of a blessing that cannot miss.

Such is empathy that it gets INSIDE the other person and completely understands where they are at.  

Empathy feels as they feel.

Empathy is that power of being able to completely understand another person, and the only assessment that matters is the assessment of the other person.  We cannot say that our empathy is in fact empathy if the other person doesn’t feel empathised with. 

See how empathy and blessing 
are all about what the OTHER person feels, 
and NOT what we feel.

The test of empathy is the 
other feeling empathised with.

Empathy, the power of blessing, is the power given to true Christian people, who, inhabited by God’s Holy Spirit, do not miss meeting symbiotically with the other person. 

The connection that is felt between human beings when one is compelled to be an instrument of blessing through the power of empathy is a supernaturally felt experience where the person being blessed is touched by the very presence of God. 

This is how Christian people are to evangelise, not through the use of common words, but in the use of uncommon actions of empathy, where a person being blessed by the power of empathy absolutely feels touched by the living God.

So many Christian evangelists get the whole point of evangelism the wrong way around when they expect that their words will have some mysterious and magical power to ‘convert’ other people to the love of God when the love of God isn’t in them. 

This form of evangelism which is quite common in the latter days of Christendom, is rife in the western world, and without deeds of love to back these words up, the words themselves are abhorrent to the Spirit of God and wreak havoc for the mission of God. 

The fact is every single person is wired, hardwired, to be met by other human beings through a cogent empathy, that speaks the powers of the living God in and through them, in much the same way as a person will know that there is a God.

This empathy is a deep-seated mode of care that takes all focus off the self and puts all that focus on another human being, that they be served, that the giver of empathy would not in any way seek to be served. 

As soon as we try this, inspired by the Spirit within us, to give the gift without any seeking or desire or craving for return on the blessing, this service itself bears the touch of God. 

God therein dwells amid the empathy, 
and as we give our empathy, 
we receive from God what cannot 
be given to us in any other way.

Can we see how this empathy, this way of being very deeply met, is the very power of God that few ever experience?  The fact is, and I know this is sure, the reason I am a pastor and a counsellor these days, is because I EXPERIENCED the empathy that I speak of in this article, and having experienced it first hand from others, was convicted and converted to it, that I would be an instrument of such empathy in others’ lives.

This empathy is the common salvation that is 
very uncommonly experienced in this world.

We are much more apt to experience a salvation that comes through words that isn’t felt in the deeper being.  The more common experience of salvation is a shallow and superficial version of the truth of salvation, and no doubt can become the catalyst to the deeper empathy of God that we need to feel in coming to the true salvation.

We, as human beings that can know God, and can experience the power of God, have been predestined to experience this empathy from others, this touch of God, in order that we may FEEL it and experience it and see it with our own eyes and touch it with our own hands, in order that we would be compelled to issue it to others, simply because it is blessed to pass that blessing forward.

I hope that you in reading this will not miss the point: 
IT IS AS WE GIVE AWAY THAT WE RECEIVE...

It is as we give away the deeper connection of our empathy 
that we give others access to the power of God.

Simply seeing this blessing run as it extrapolates from us in many tentacles of blessing unto miracles of transformation is the compound effect of the blessing, unto many experiences of baptism in the Holy Spirit.

What needs to be seen by each of us in our living days 
is that we are here for a solitary purpose.

The vast majority of us will miss this purpose.  We will grab at a life that insists that others empathise with us without us contemplating the truer understanding that life is an upside-down reality. 

Life’s purpose is in empathising with others, and experiencing what happens as a direct result, which is the blessing of God that is input into our lives through another person or people being blessed.

The more we give our lives away, the more God gives back to us, if only we can resist the resentment the creeps up when our blessings are unrequited.  We do not bless others to receive their blessings in return.  We bless others because it is our purpose.

We bless others because it is 
the power of empathy that blesses us. 

That is, God’s blessing of us.  
It is an “inside” job.

Forgiveness, Wisdom of the Heart

There is no purpose in life greater than attaining wisdom of the heart.  Legends who have trod this earth through time immemorial tell us how important it is to attain poise.  It is life, it is blessing, it is insight, it is hope, and it is prosperity and abundance.  Even if we possess nothing physical, material, or tangible at all.

When we lose our composure, 
we lose the dignity that propagates 
the assured life where we are 
blessed as we are a blessing.

The reason attaining wisdom of the heart is so important is life is full of moments where we are infracted and are therefore tempted to REACT in ways that do not serve both us and others.  Wisdom of the heart is the central service of all humankind.

YET... a most important acronym.
The AA’s have it:
You’re.  Eligible.  Too.

We all get certain moments wrong.
We are all afforded such opportunities to learn.
And, there is no shame in learning.

~

LIFE AND WISDOM ARE *IN* THE RESPONSE

A basic knowledge of humanity 
is we CAN respond in humility.

Think for a moment of the responses of Viktor Frankl, Anne Frank, Wade Watts, Martin Luther-King, who all managed to quell their emotions enough in the belly of the pit of tyranny.  Or Saint John of the Cross, Joni Eareckson Tada, Helen Keller, Olaudah Equiano, or even biblical Job, who all suffered profoundly yet seemingly responded well, at least in the final analysis.

Consider these people.
Consider these human beings.
Capable of responding differently.

Whether it is always realistic or not to respond the right way, it is always a good objective to reflect and to revise our strategy.  It is never too late to repent.  That is, to change our tack.  If we have committed to an unsustainable path, all it takes is humility to admit we got it wrong.

We have power to turn away 
from that which does not work, 
that does not serve us, 
that does not serve others. 

We ALL hold this power.

Of course it is better by far to respond in humility all the way.  There are some situations in life where this is easy.  Other situations it seems impossible.  Most important, we need the capacity of forgiving ourselves, or receiving God’s forgiveness afresh.  Whether we respond well initially or not, we can be thankful for the humility that honours the truth eventually.  We can turn the wrong response into the right one in the blink of an eye.

WHAT IS THE WISDOM OF THE HEART?

In ancient times, the heart was seen 
as the seat of the emotions. 
All our reactions and responses 
emanate from the heart.

The opposite to the phrase ‘wisdom of the heart’ is the phrase ‘folly of the heart’.  Wisdom and folly are eternal and immortal concepts and were written about thousands of years ago, as the biblical Proverbs testify.

We have all engaged in folly.  We have all made decisions based in pride, anger, envy, etc.  But such is life, we all have many opportunities of ‘do over’.  We all get multiple chances to revise our strategies, to turn from our ineffective and inappropriate ways of dealing with things.

The wisdom of the heart is in essence the humility 
to see the truth and be honest with ourselves.

Wisdom of the heart redeems, refreshes, restores.

Wisdom of the heart helps us turn from folly.

I like to call it “pouring contempt on my pride,” per the words of the ancient hymn, “As I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”  The wisdom of the heart convicts our hearts when we are wrong, when we are embarking or travelling in the wrong way.

The wisdom of the heart in essence is repentance; 
that capacity to change one’s mind 
from wrong to right, from evil to good, 
from division to peace.

~

LIFE AND WISDOM – BLESSING UNTO BLESSED

The function of a human’s presence 
is blessing unto being blessed.

Life is instructive.  All of what we can perceive and thereby know is to be drawn within, even as breath of inspiration, for learning and response.  If something we see or know or feel or otherwise perceive seems good, we learn why, and then how to do it.  We replicate it.  Because it is wisdom.  If something we see or know or feel or otherwise perceive annoys us, we learn why, and then we avoid that way.  Because it is folly.

Our veritable function in this world, 
while our hearts beat, 
is that our hearts would beat for Him 
who is our Lord, Saviour, and King.

Our bodies, our minds, our souls, 
are to be a blessing unto our own blessedness. 

Blessing is our purpose. 

If we are anything else, we are a 
blight upon Him who gave us our lives.

FORGIVENESS: BLESSING UNTO BLESSED – A BENEDICTION

May it be for the human being reading this: 
blessing that they be and blessed as a result.

Blessing comes in no better, nor more pungent form, 
than through forgiveness, which I describe here 
as the wisdom of the heart.

The wisdom of the heart understands and accepts that for growth to occur there must be forgiveness, and that forgiveness itself is the important signpost of growth.  And how are we to forgive other than to work with accepting individuals and situations we cannot change—which is a basic element of maturity. 

Forgiveness is, in and of itself, 
a key indicator of resilience 
forged through the crucible of adversity. 

~

Forgiveness shows how the heart 
has overcome overtures to the hurts of life. 

Forgiveness is the equilibrium of life, 
taking post-traumatic stress and 
making it post-traumatic growth. 

~

Forgiveness is the necessary foundation stone 
for a life of blessing: blessing unto being blessed.

~

BENEDICTION
May it be you, in your deepest, wildest hour, 
who, having traversed untold myriad adversity, 
stands tall in the face of what has been, 
sits gently with what has been done, 
considering it all, and smiles,
for you have forgiven.