What God Has Been Teaching Me Lately
I Know How You Feel
Scott was just 24 years old when he moved from his home, family and dearest friends in Arkansas. He and his young wife loaded their moving van to hit the long road leading to their future. They wiped their tears as they pulled away and had a hard time keeping them from falling again as they traveled west. Their hearts felt as heavy as the weight they carried behind them. A lifetime of memories packed away in boxes, about to be unloaded in a place where no one knew them.
Few times do we feel as alone as when we are somewhere between the familiar that grounds us and the future that beckons us. There is an uncomfortable self-awareness that just makes us feel downright alone. It's a hard feeling to carry.
After traveling several hours, Scott pulled the bulky moving van into a restaurant parking lot in Springfield, Missouri. He and his wife ate lunch and talked about what they had just left and what they were about to encounter in a new place with new people. After paying for their meal, they made their way back to the van.
As Scott reached for the door handle, he noticed a note tucked between the windshield wiper and the windshield. He unfolded it to see that a stranger had left a quickly-scribbled, penciled sentence. It read,
"I know how you feel."
"I know how you feel." What a statement of empathy and compassion. Thirty years later, Scott still remembers the kind statement from a stranger who cared enough to show empathy. He remembers how that single statement bolstered him and encouraged him for the miles he traveled and the years that followed. There's something stabilizing about knowing you are not alone. Others know how you feel.
We have a God who knows how we feel, too. He is described in scripture as "compassionate." The original Latin word from which we gain our English word is compati. "Com" means "together with." "Pati" means "to suffer." He is a God of compassion. He is "together with, to suffer." He is with us in our sorrow, grief and pain. He feels it. He has experienced it, too. He knows how we feel.
There is a statement written across history. It began in a manger and was punctuated on a cross. It is God writing "I know how you feel." When Jesus subjected Himself to the confines of our humanity, it was as if He said, "I know how you feel." When He allowed Himself to suffer with the weight of our sin and be crucified, it was as if He said, "I know how you feel."
He is a compassionate God of empathy. He knows how you feel because He has felt it. Next time you feel alone in your grief, alone in your sorrow, alone in your illness or alone in your hardship, remember-- He knows how you feel and He cares about you enough to show you. Look for how He is writing that sentence all around you and let it remind you that He sees and He knows.
Well, that's what's been percolating in me lately.
Comments