The Gift or Empathy

God has given me a spirit of empathy. I guess that can either be a gift or a hindrance.

As a gift, it helps me really see things from someone else's perspective, step in their shoes and feel their joy or pain. It helps me better encourage them or advise them. It allows me to experience situations I otherwise may not. I grow closer to friends because I bear their burdens with them. I can give better explanations or better advice because I can tailor my words to really fit their circumstances.

As a hindrance, it weighs me down to bear the burdens of others. When a friend experiences something rough or just depressing, I feel that anxiety or depression. I can't be cold in business and make decisions that greatly affect others because I can't help but see how it's going to hurt someone. It's an emotional roller coaster. And it makes me more emotional, and I'm already prone to emotion.

More than once, I've had a good friend come to me, and confess something they did totally out of their own will and totally against God's. They feel such deep shame and remorse. I want to counsel them, but I feel their pain so much that it makes it hard for me to clearly see what I need to say. I have a hard time separating emotions from clear thinking.

I wish I could make someone make the right decisions. I wish I could help my friends stay on track, and keep myself on track, but in the end it's between you (or me) and God.

God must feel this way all the time! Watching us do things He already knows will end up hurting us or put us through unnecessary trouble. But He lets us make mistakes and fall on our faces. It must be so frustrating.

I think the empathy is a good thing. I just have to balance it. I like that I can really appreciate how someone feels and walk that road with them, so long as I can still keep my head up and breathe and allow God to be in the midst of those times.