ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 22, 2025
What do you do when a child is screaming in the hotel room next door at 1am? I was never sure what someone meant when they described someone as screaming bloody murder, but I think I now know the definition. It was ear-piercing for well over an hour, though as I lay in bed pondering the situation, I remembered traveling in my early 20s with a group of friends, and we stayed a few nights in a hotel—four of us to a room. And I’m pretty sure our late-night laughing got a call to the front desk from a neighboring room. Then there is the experience of being a parent and realizing that all the complaining one might have made about other children before becoming a parent suddenly went out the window once you’re seeing things from the other side. In those moments when I was absolutely certain my child would not ever do something, five minutes would pass, and my child would do it with even more volume or rudeness or both. So in spite of wanting to sleep, there was also a sense of compassion and concern for the parents of that screaming child. They had to be exhausted, along with feeling embarrassed. How do life experiences change our sense of empathy for others? It would be nice to feel empathy without having the personal experiences, and I think Jesus invites us to continue to stretch ourselves toward that place where empathy is our go-to emotion in a world that definitely needs a whole lot more empathy.
Holy God, continue to grow my capacity for empathy. Provide me with the capacity to ache for people who are hurting, even when their hurt is way outside my experiences. Amen.
