Earlier I posted about a young man who regularly "tags" the bridge near our house. I saw him out and about again the other day and then saw this newly painted message - "broken empath." It struck me because I've been thinking a lot about how important it is to be able to walk in people's shoes, so to speak. To feel what they're going through and seek to understand why they do what they do. To be empathic.
But what happens when our ability to do this is broken? Maybe we've felt people's pain or brokenness so deeply that it's pushed us to our limits and we cannot go to that place anymore.
I don't have any clean and tidy answers to that question. I am constantly encountering brokenness in others but whenever I'm tempted to feel more together I'm reminded of my latest or greatest faults and the empathy flows in bucket loads.
I've been in that place of being a "broken empath" as well. It was a dark place, where all I could think of was survival and holding back from hurting myself or others. When everyone around feels like an enemy or indifferent, it's difficult to know up from down. Thankfully the one Constant in my life was exactly that and He gently showed me the diamonds in the rough until I could trust again.
We all have our strengths and blaring weaknesses but if we're going to do anything together with others in this world we need to know those diamonds are worth all the cuts and bruises it takes to find them.
