Imagine the entire world seeing life the way you see it. All of God's creation reacts to the way you feel, the fate of each day rests on the way you perceive waking up. Some wake up to the sun and on those days, the world will dance and sing and see the beauty of everything. Others like me would wake up suddenly to four walls caving in as the joists bowed, then cracked, then snapped. The sun would decide not to shine and the moon would hide behind nothing. And you would still see the beauty in everything.
The problem is that we usually don't see whats really going on until it is too late. I could see it in his eyes, but I didn't see it through his eyes, so I lacked understanding. Empathy is the practice of seeing things through another's eyes, not just pitying them. To the very detriment to this world, apathy runs parallel to empathy. Most choose the smoother apathetic road as it has no cracks, valleys, or hills to climb. On the smoother road, we can walk right by the wounded and they won't slow us down, because we would never really stop. We would look down, frown, and leave that guy alone. "Too bad for that guy," we would say. The empathetic road is full of good Samaritans searching for a way to alleviate the broken from their suffering. It isn't the easiest road, but it is the most rewarding. It is the road, you will see Jesus on every time.
I wish I had been traveling that road 9 months ago. Can't change that now. But for the sake of keeping accurate records, let it be known that I would have changed everything.
We cannot continue living a life of opium. We can't push back the things that evoke negatively perceived emotions and choose not to feel them at all. They are gonna get you one way or another. Putting them off will lead to greater pain. So trying to avoid seeing the way the world really is to another that is hurting will really only harden your heart. A hard heart is death.
Sing.
Migrate.
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