Hm...well said - H

This is an entry from The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. E is reading it and he came across this entry that reminded him of me. It sums up perfectly how I felt when talking with my coworker yesterday who, by the way, is a believer. Rick Warren writes:

"In real fellowship people experience sympathy. Sympathy is not giving advice or offering quick, cosmetic help; sympathy is entering in and sharing in the pain of others. Sympathy says, 'I understand what you're going through, and what you feel is neither strange nor crazy.' Today some call this 'empathy,' but the biblical word is 'sympathy.' The Bible says, 'As holy people...be sympathetic, kind, humble, gentle, and patient.' Col. 3.12 (GWT)

Sympathy meets two fundamental human needs: the need to be understood and the need to have your feelings validated. Every time you understand and affirm someone's feelings, you build fellowship. The problem is that we are often in so much of a hurry to fix things that we don't have time to sympathize with people..." and the rest of the entry is about the fellowship of sharing each other's burdens.

"...the need to be understood and the need to have your feelings validated." I jive with that!