That's Me

      I think a real connection is made when we can see ourselves in each other. We can relate to someone's suffering by the memory of our own. It is the same with their joy if we have experienced the same thing. We have the ability to empathize with each other. Our empathy can reach out and understand the other person's situation. We will have reached one of our highest degrees of understanding when we can say they are us and we are them. Divisions can melt away if we can empathize with one another.
     A scribe asked Jesus, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" and Jesus answered him in Mark 12:29-31 "Jesus answered, "The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these." Jesus said you shall love your neighbor as yourself and this is the second most important commandment, so if we are empathizing with our neighbor we are fulfilling the second commandment of love. If we are empathizing with someone we will surely follow it up with kind acts of support and love. By connecting with my neighbor through my empathy, I can see that he is just like me needing that which I would need.
     So with my empathy I can look around my world and see others as myself. I may not always completely understand what they are going through but I can say if I was in their shoes that I could be just like them. If I saw someone suffering, I could say within my mind that's me. If I saw someone without a home this could be me as well. If I saw someone confused, lost and hungry that's me in need of help. Every person that I see I could be them and they could be me if the circumstances were right. My neighbors would no longer be strangers if I saw myself standing in their shoes. I could love my neighbor as myself because with my empathy there will be a common bond between us. I can see that he is a child of God just like myself and we are just trying to find our way in this world and both of us we need some help along the way and through our empathy and love we can help each other.
     Opening your heart and letting yourself feel what others are feeling is a great thing to do. It is letting go of your fear and replacing it with love, it is seeing others as yourself. It is breaking down the barriers between us and making connections. Empathy and love draws us closer together as a people. We are making God proud when we reach out and help others that are in need. They are us and we are them this is the outlook that we must have in order to love your neighbor as yourself. You have to put yourself in their shoes and say this could be me. That's me over there hurting. That's me being sad. That's me needing help. That's me needing a friend. When you can see yourself in every situation and being able to empathize with love then you will find yourself standing next to God. If we all could do this our world would become close to a paradise.