“You just don’t understand! You don’t get it! You’ll never get it! Nobody understands me, no one knows what I’m going through!” How often did I say those exact words to my parents as a teenager? How often do I still feel those words to be true today, even with my parents long gone? Truthfully, maybe none of us completely outgrow feeling misunderstood and misjudged by others. We long for someone to walk a mile in our shoes, to experience what we have experienced – the good, the bad and the ugly, so that they will truly understand us and treat us with compassion borne of empathy.
We all want to feel that we are accepted and understood by someone, anyone – friends, spouses, coworkers, family members – there has to be somebody that “gets us”, right? This age old human desire to know and to be known, now seems harder to realize than at any time previously in human history, which is ironic because we are more connected today than ever before via technology. Still people report feeling isolated and alone in higher numbers than ever before, according to current research. Maybe hanging out with friends on Facebook isn’t as fulfilling as hanging out with friends face to face in the flesh?
I know I long for something more than an internet connection. A hug emoji is no match for a real life human hug. We are like icebergs floating in the ocean – ten percent visible above the water’s surface, the other ninety percent submerged, hidden beneath the waves and the water. No wonder it’s so hard to get to know each other, let alone understand each other. We often don’t have the time nor the opportunity nor the inclination to walk a mile in another person’s shoes. After all, we find walking a mile in our own shoes challenging enough each day.
In the movie “Freaky Friday”, a mother and daughter change places for a few days, each living the other’s life. They truly do “walk a mile in each other’s shoes”, giving them new understanding, empathy and compassion for each other. Too bad that’s not real life. But the good news is – I do have an advocate – Someone who “gets me”, understands me and sympathizes with me. And you do too, dear readers. Our advocate is none other than Jesus Christ! He truly does “walk every mile in my shoes” every day, because He never leaves me nor forsakes me. Hebrews tells me this –
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:14-15)
Did you catch that? Jesus sympathizes with us precisely because He has been tempted just like we are. He gets it! He gets us! What an extraordinary sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf to come here and walk a mile in our earthly, human shoes literally.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. . . . The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-2 & 14)
The Word, Jesus, became flesh. For our sakes, Jesus took on an earthly body, just like ours. He experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, illness, temptation in the desert, the grief of loss (like Lazarus), the betrayal of friends and family, (Peter, Judas, His hometown), the opposition of those in power, the tiredness of travel, being misunderstood by multitudes and by those closest to Him, being maliciously maligned and misjudged by those He came to save – Jesus experienced all these things and more as He walked dusty miles in our human shoes.
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. . . . Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5)
Jesus went to such great lengths to empathize with you and with me, by walking miles in our human shoes. He didn’t just phone it in. Philippians reminds me just how far Jesus was willing to go, saying –
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:5-8)
Jesus understands the human roller coaster of everchanging feelings and circumstances that you and I experience every day. He gets it. After all, in a very short time Jesus experienced the crowds shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” as He rode on the colt into Jerusalem, while just a few days later, the crowd shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Talk about your quick turn around. (sounds like today, doesn’t it? with our social media and cancel culture) When I experience blindsiding betrayal, when I feel misunderstood and misjudged by others – I can know that there is One who understands me completely – the One who came here to walk a mile in my shoes, the One who knows me better than I know myself – Jesus.
Jesus embodies God’s ultimate empathy for me and for you, dear readers. Because God made us, He understands us, He empathizes with us, He has compassion for us.
“The Lord is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made.” (Psalm 145:9)
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14)
the ultimate empathy – Jesus “took up my infirmities and carried my sorrows” and He is carrying them still today.
“Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
the ultimate empathy – Jesus “remembers that I am dust” – He knows, He made me that way – He has compassion on me – He hears my cries and understands when no one else does.
“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” (Psalm 68:19)
“The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down.” (Psalm 145:14)
ultimate empathy – can only come from the One who created me in the first place
“O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord.” (Psalm 139:1-4)
the One who knows me best, loves me most – that’s ultimate empathy
sincerely, Grace Day