Are you as tired as I am with people on social media saying they are “empaths?”
The internet has once again distorted something that is extremely valuable and made it into a joke.
An extremely cringe-worthy joke.
My article ideas have always been inspired by weird coincidences between what I’m learning in my classes and what I’m observing outside of them. In my Cross-Cultural Engagement course, my classmates and I just recently filled out an interesting quiz centering around one’s ability to be empathetic toward others. As I answered the questions, I was intrigued by how many of them asked about my imagination. I figured I would score in the ordinary range, yet I was pleasantly surprised when the results said I was above average.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this to sound boastful and get some pats on the back. I’m not always super aware of other’s feelings, and I definitely mess up a lot when it comes to reading people’s emotions. However, I found it strangely comforting to know that my ability to empathize is not solely based on how emotional or intuitive I am.
Empathy is complex. It’s influenced by our spiritual gifts and our ability to analyze someone’s gestures, body language, and facial expressions. Being observant of the people around oneself is also key. I am naturally a people watcher and enjoy listening more than talking in many situations, and this gives me the space I need to work on understanding those around me. Empathy is also affected by how one is raised. Growing up in a school or a home where compassion and understanding are encouraged and rewarded is extremely valuable.
As all these thoughts floated around in my head, the idea of empathy was presented once again in my American Literature class. My classmates and I were assigned a Wendell Berry essay entitled “It All Turns on Affection” for our weekly reading. In this short essay, Berry talked about his family history and the troubles that came with being a farmer. He wrote about having affection for others after witnessing industrialists who turned a blind eye toward poor planters in their pursuit of wealth and power. Berry stressed the importance of practicing empathy through imagination.
He defined imagination as “a mental faculty that some people have used and thought about with the utmost seriousness. The sense of the verb “to imagine” contains the full richness of the verb “to see.” To imagine is to see most clearly, familiarly, and understandingly with the eyes, but also to see inwardly, with “the mind’s eye.” It is to see, not passively, but with a force of vision and even with visionary force. To take it seriously we must give up at once any notion that imagination is disconnected from reality or truth or knowledge. It has nothing to do either with clever imitation of appearances or with “dreaming up.” It does not depend upon one’s attitude or point of view, but grasps securely the qualities of things seen or envisioned.” (pg. 3-4).
Berry recognized that we can’t practice empathy without developing our imaginative abilities. We have to train ourselves to truly “see” people by adopting their perspectives.
Though we will never understand someone else’s story completely, Jesus calls us to serve others by investing in their lives.
Berry reminds us that “we cannot know the whole truth, which belongs to God alone, but our task nevertheless is to seek to know what is true. And if we offend gravely enough against what we know to be true, as by failing badly enough to deal affectionately and responsibly with our land and our neighbors, truth will retaliate with ugliness, poverty, and disease. The crisis of this line of thought is the realization that we are at once limited and unendingly responsible for what we know and do” (pg. 10).
As Christ’s ambassadors, we have a responsibility to love redemptively and demonstrate empathy to the best of our abilities.
My favorite quote from Berry’s essay happened to be toward the end of the article, when he stated- “knowledge without affection leads us astray every time. Affection leads, by way of good work, to authentic hope” (pg. 13-14). True empathy should lead to investing time in someone who is struggling. Sympathy can become stagnant, but empathy always flows and flourishes into better connections.
These past few weeks have inspired me to do more than just observe those around me. I want to work on understanding and empathizing with others so that I may better reflect Christ’s love while I still have time on this earth.
