#120- Empathy the Way of Jesus

Episode Summary

In a world that is loud, divided, and quick to judge, empathy feels rare.

But empathy is not weakness. It is the way of Jesus.

In this episode, we slow down and study Scripture together to understand empathy not as a personality trait, but as a biblical posture formed by the heart of God.

After last week’s episode on finding hope when the world feels broken became the most responded-to episode in all 120 recordings, it became clear: people are longing to be seen, understood, and met with compassion.

So today, we open our Bibles and look at how Jesus modeled empathy in real, tangible ways.

What We Study in This Episode

John 5:1–9 — The Man at the Pool
Jesus heals without blame or interrogation of past failure.

Matthew 8:1–3 — The Leper
Compassion crosses social and religious barriers.

Luke 10:25–37 — The Good Samaritan
Empathy that is costly, courageous, and obedient.

What You’ll Walk Away With

• A deeper theological understanding of empathy
 • A clearer view of how Jesus embodied compassion
 • Insight into why empathy feels scarce in today’s culture
 • Practical ways to cultivate empathy rooted in Scripture

Empathy begins with seeing.
And seeing begins with slowing down.

Grab your Bible as you listen, and download the free companion study guide to continue digging into the historical context, theological meaning, and personal application of this episode.

Download the Episode #120 Study Guide here:
https://shopjoyfulorder.com/

Key Verse (SOAP Together)

“But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.”
 — Luke 10:33

If this episode encouraged or challenged you, consider sharing it with someone who may need to be reminded of what compassion looks like.

Let’s be people who don’t just pass by. Let’s be people who see.

Connect with Leslie:

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Website: https://shopjoyfulorder.com/

Email: lmartinez@yourjoyfulorder.com
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Watch this Episode on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXoAYIM2mfclNtYiaOzIUw

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Transcript

Gratitude For Listener Responses

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey friend, welcome back to another episode of Your Joyful Order podcast. Now, before we jump into today's episode, I just want to pause for a moment and acknowledge something really important. Last week's episode number 119, Finding Hope in the Worlds feels broken, has received more response than any episode that I have shared in all 120 episodes that I have recorded. The messages that you've sent, the shares, the quiet thank yous, the DMs telling me this is exactly what I needed. I just want you to know that they mattered so deeply to me. And it also tells me just something sacred. It tells me that what we've talked about wasn't just timely, but it was needed. If you all have been like me, where you get angry about what is, you know, taking place in the world and you just don't know how to process it, I know that I wasn't alone. And if that episode met you where you are, I want you to know that I see you, I hear you, and I love you. I'm so grateful that you trusted me and you trusted your heart to just really um listen in that space. So let's get ready to get into this week's episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Hey everyone, I'm Leslie Martin, and you're listening to your Joyful Order podcast. Each week I will bring you joyful stories that will motivate and inspire you, but at the same time, bring order to your everyday life. Let's just say this show will be a mixture of preaching and teaching with the kick of motivation from your girl here. Welcome to your Joyful Order Podcast.

A New Season And Format Shift

Why Empathy, Not More Opinions

Defining Empathy Biblically

John 5: Healing Without Blame

Matthew 8: Touching The Untouchable

A Personal Story Of Presence

SPEAKER_02 1:49

All right, friends. So before we go any further in this week's episode, I also want to share something about this season of the podcast. So as we move through this season, uh, these episodes are gonna feel a little different. I wanted to shake things up this season, and I kind of got my feet wet with the first two episodes. And then I just have like this epiphany. I met with a friend and she gave me some feedback on last week's episode. And then I listened to another podcast episode, and God spoke to me in that podcast and was like, Leslie, you see what the people need. You have heard their responses. Now it's time for you to put this podcast together in a way that is really gonna bring value to what they need. So this podcast is gonna look a little different today. We're not just talking about, you know, personal development and growth anymore. We're gonna be talking about scripture, we're gonna be studying scripture together. So I want to invite you today, right now, go grab your Bible because we'll be reading passages together out loud and walking through them together in context, not just for inspiration, but for understanding. And after each episode, there will be a free, yes, I said free study guide that will go along to today's episode. And it'll be available for you to download on my shopjoyfulorder.com website. And it's gonna be designed to help you to just slow down to sit with the scripture that we're gonna be going into today. And I want you to dig into the theology, understand the historical context, and reflect on how God's word for us not just inspires us, but it forms us also. And it's just gonna be a great way for you to just tie everything together. So whether you're listening driving in the car right now, if you're folding laundry, if you're sitting with your journal open, I just want you to know that you're not just listening to a podcast this season. You are gonna be invited to intentional scripture study. And the reason we're slowing down and studying scripture this way is because topics like today, we're gonna be talking about empathy. They're not formed by opinion, but rather being shaped by the heart of God. And that's why it is so important for us to understand scripture and let scripture give us a heart posture that we'll be able to hear and listen and take action on some of the topics that this season will be covering. Now, let's get into it, y'all. So, kind of going back off of last week's episode, we all know that there is something that is just missing in our world, like desperately, desperately missing. We are lacking so much right now. Information is not what we're lacking, it's not opinions, because Lord knows we have plenty of those out there, and social media has been that platform that has given so many people um not just information, but opinions, and opinions that are good and opinions that just stink. But what we truly are lacking in our world today is empathy. We are loud, we are divided, we are defensive, and we are so quick to judge, but we are slow to listen, we are slow to sit, and we are so slow to just fill and be empathetic with one another. And after the response again to last week's episode, it became even more clear to me that people are longing to be understood, not corrected, and people are longing to be seen, not labeled, and that people just want to be met with compassion and not assumptions. And we are living in a world right now that compassion and empathy are under severe attack because it just is almost non-existent in what is taking place in our nation right now. So today I want to talk about empathy and empathy not as a personality trait, but as a biblical posture. Because empathy isn't weakness, empathy is Christ-like strength, and Jesus displays this all throughout the Gospels. So if we want to look more like Jesus in a broken world which we are in, empathy has to shape not just what we believe, but also and how we show up for one another. So let's first get into what exactly is empathy. And I'm gonna start with what the true, like the dictionary definition of empathy is. And the dictionary says that empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another, to step into someone else's experience without judgment. Y'all to step into someone else's experience without judgment. A simple picture of empathy is this. Let me just like make it very simple for you. It means you do not rush to fix people, it means you don't explain away the pain for people, and it means that you don't assign blame for what is taking place in someone's life. You just stay, you sit, you listen, you love, maybe you embrace now the Bible does not necessarily use the word empathy in the Bible context, but we see the concept of empathy everywhere throughout the Bible. Scripture actually tells us in Romans 12, 15, it says, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. So biblically, empathy means this: that you are entering into someone else's suffering, that you are bearing burdens instead of judging others, and that you choose compassion over explanation. Empathy really reflects the heart of God. It's not just emotional awareness. You are allowing yourself to get into the posture of who God is, and that came in representation of Jesus. And we saw it all throughout scripture and in his ministry. He modeled empathy for us. So if we really, really want to understand empathy, we look at Jesus. So Jesus consistently met people in their pain before addressing anything else, y'all. Now, here's where we really got into Bible study. Okay. Here's a good time if you want to go and grab your Bible, go get it. If you're on your phone, open up your phone to your Bible. I always recommend that once you start to really dig into studying the Bible, NIV version of the Bible and the ESV versions are the best. And that's the new international version or the English Standard Version. I am going to be reading from the NIV version. So if you are on like your Bible app on your phone, you might want to open up in the NIV version. Now we're gonna be in John 5, 1 through 15. So I want you to flip there. I have my Bible open already for us. Here we go. If you're watching on YouTube, I do put a green screen up, so my Bible, like it disappears, it comes back, it disappears. It's a magic trick. Okay, let's get started. This is probably one of my most favorite stories from the Bible, y'all. There are so many lessons in this. So we are reading about the man at the pole, and we're learning how Jesus healed without blame. So here we go. I'm reading John 5, 1 through 15. The healing at the pool. Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the sheep gate a pole, which in Aramatic is called Bethsheda, and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie: the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was the Sabbath. And so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath. The law forbids you to carry your mat. But he replied, The man who made me well said to me, Pick up your mat and walk. So they asked him, Who is this fellow who told you to pick up your mat and walk? The man who was healed has no idea who it was, for Jesus has slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later, Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, See, you are well again. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. All right. Y'all, some of you might have listened that that might have been the most verses of the Bible that you've ever listened to or read at one time. And I just want to say kudos. You get a hand clap for that. I'm proud of you for staying here. Now, y'all, this story, there's so much to unpack here. I want to stay on the topic of empathy here. No, this is a man that had been sick for 38 years. 38 years. He'd been sitting there by the waters and walked. I mean, he probably saw hundreds and hundreds of people just walk past him. Jesus asked him one simple thing. Do you want to be well? He asked him that. And the man didn't even respond and say yes. No, right away he gave an excuse. He gave an excuse and was like, or where is it? Here it is. He says, Do you want to get well? Sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. He didn't say yes. Like what the heck? He just didn't say yes. Jesus asked, Do you want to be well? He didn't ask, Why are you still here? Why didn't you try harder? Why didn't you roll yourself into the pool? Why didn't you army crawl your way in? Why didn't you ask someone to help you in? Why did you fail? Or who failed you? Or what sins have you done to get you here? No, Jesus didn't ask any of that. All he said is, Do you want to be made well? And then he healed him. There was no blame, no shame, no interrogation of his past, nothing. Are you, you know, are you here legally? Do you deserve to get free money for the state? Do you pay your taxes? How did you vote? He he didn't ask any of that, y'all. He just said, Do you want to be made well? Jesus does not shame to prolong suffering. He did not shame at all. He didn't shame the man. He didn't say, yo, bro, you've been here 38 years and you haven't made an effort to get yourself into the pool. Like, clearly, no. Like, I'm not gonna heal you because you haven't made an effort. That's y'all. And this is where like I myself struggle with empathy. This is this is written for me because this is something I struggle with in many areas. As long as I see people making an effort, I'm like, okay, let's go. This man made no effort whatsoever. So I wonder, like, if I was there at that time, if I if I were Jesus, which I should be more like Jesus, and say, hey, look, you're healed. Nothing about it. I probably would have asked a lot of questions before, though. I'm not gonna lie. I would have been like, bro, you've been here for 38 years. Why have you not asked someone to help you? Why have you not crawled? Why have you not figured out a way to get yourself into the waters? And I would have asked those questions, see what he said, and be like, okay, I'll heal you. Um, no, Jesus, none of that. He just healed him. And that, my friend, is what empathy looks like. We're gonna go and we're gonna read more, more examples of what empathy looks like. So now let's turn to Matthew 8. Okay, go to Matthew. Matthew is the first book of the New Testament. Can you can you hear I hope the Rust Belling of the pages picks up on sound? I don't know. I do so much like blockage is unnecessary sound for good audio, but I am hoping that you are turning those pages to the Bible. And let's see, let's go. If you're on like a device, just pretend you're flipping pages and make the sounds because flipping pages of the Bible just sounds so good. Okay, here we are. We're gonna read about the lepers and how Jesus just like served with compassion before the law. And Matthew 8, 1 through 4, right here. And it says, When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, Be clean. Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, See that you don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offered the gift Moses commanded as a testimony to them. Y'all. Leopards were untouchable, in case you didn't know. They were physically, socially, and spiritually untouchable. They had leper communities where they sent these people and secluded them and they could not come and interact with like all the other people. Yet Jesus touched this man. Now, before restoration, before reintegration, before anything else, empathy often requires proximity that we are taught to avoid. And right now we are living in a world where that is not taking place. Jesus did not ask this man anything of his sins, where he's been, who he's slept with, who he's kissed, who he's touched. He didn't say you're cochino, because lepers were considered like dirty people, right? He's like, Oh, you're cochino, that's why you have leprosy. No, he didn't say any of that, he didn't question any of that. As a matter of fact, he touched him and he healed him. Empathy starts with just being in proximity to people that we are told are untouchable. Empathy is going out and loving and caring and speaking to people that maybe don't look like us, don't act like us, don't speak like us, don't vote like us, right? Jesus is teaching us a lot here. Now, as I said before, I kind of wondered in these situations, like, is this something that like how would I respond? And um God put this topic in my heart uh simultaneously with last week. In doing last week's episode, empathy was just the big thing that kept coming up, but I wanted to focus on my talking points from last week. And I said, I'm just gonna do a whole other episode about empathy because this is something that I need to study because I felt that it is something that I myself need to exercise more and get more ruts in, basically, because I'm like, you know, I I can sympathize with people definitely, but empathizing with people, I'm not sure. And I asked Jesus to kind of reveal to me and say, am I an empathetic person? Is this something that I I need to really begin to work on? And I'm actually gonna share something with y'all um before we go further in the Bible, because this God just really put it on my heart to share. This is a moment that not just changed how I understand empathy, but also God kind of shared with me, like Leslie, you are empathetic. Do you do you remember this? So the other day when I was preparing for this podcast, I went on a walk and I took my dog, I had my air buds in, I was listening to podcasts, and there was something in the podcast that just reminded me of this whole topic of empathy. And I was like, Oh, this is good. You know, this is all like aligning right with what I want my podcast topic to be about. And as we're walking, there's a route that um I normally take with my dog. Well, she didn't want to go that route. She wanted to go, we normally go like down my street, and we go left, and she wanted to go straight. Now, back in October of 2025, there was an incident that occurred that I have not shared with like anybody. And I'm sharing it here on the podcast for the first time. I shared um what took place with my mom, um, a good friend of mine, and my cousin, and that is it. And I'm about to share it with all of y'all right now because this is something I've had to sit heavy with for a really long time. And forgive me in advance for getting emotional because this is just something so heavy for me to talk about. But God really, really needed me to share this because one, this is my way of healing. Um, two, there's so many lessons in this. Um, and three, empathy is what I learned in a lot of this. So um and going back, it's October, it's a Saturday, late October Saturday. Uh, it was my son's homecoming dance that day. And my husband and I woke up late. We were at a football game the night before. We photographed for football and we're retired, so we slept in. Uh, we had to go and pick up my son's like flower and croissage for his date for his homecoming dance, and we had to pick it up by like 10 a.m. I think it was. It was yeah, we had to pick it up by 10 a.m. So we got up late, we got a slow start, and we needed to take my dog for a walk. Normally on Saturday mornings, we will do a long walk with her. Um, oftentimes we'll head out and go do like a hike, a four or five mile hike. This morning because we woke up late and because we had to pick up flowers by 10 a.m., we decided to just walk our neighborhood and to do a short and quick walk. Uh, well, in our house or at our house, from our house all the way down, like we have a straight shot all the way down going south on our street to the street light is exactly one mile. We get one mile going there and back. So on this morning, we said, hey, we literally only have like about like a half hour to take our dog for a walk. So let's just do a quick mile. So we did that straight straight shot going straight down. So on our way coming back up the street, there was uh a house. And this house has like an elevated um yard. You actually like like climb up from the sidewalk. There's some stairs that go up, and then the yard is like a little bit elevated. That like if you walk on the sidewalk, the wall to their yard is like up to my shoulders, kind of okay. So it's like an elevated, and I'm explaining all this for a reason. So we're walking back, and in front of that house with the yard that's up there, um, there was a dog that was down on the parkway, not on their yard. There was a uh it was a German shepherd, y'all. It was down on the parkway. We're on that same side of the street, we're walking up, and I see the dog ahead from a distance. No leash, no one out in front of that house. At that time, I didn't know is this a stray? I don't see anybody. Where did this dog come from? It's a loose dog. It's me, my husband, my dog, and it's a German Shepherd. I had a German Shepherd growing up. I had him for 14 years. We got him when I was about like two years old, and we had to put him down when I was a teenager and I loved and adored him. And that dog protected me like crazy, y'all. He was such a protective dog. I love that dog to death. But I also know how vicious German shepherds can be. So we were cautious. Um, as we got a little bit closer, the dog winded up like walking up the stairs to the yard up on top. So my husband and I, we walked across the street. And as we're getting closer, I'm watching the dog. And then I realized, hey, the dog came from that house where the dog was hanging out because I saw that their fence was open. So we're getting a little closer, and I was very um uh apprehensive to going past the house. However, that was our only way to get home, y'all. Like we we had to go that way. There's no other way to get to my house other than going past that house. So as we're getting up, something in my gut, y'all, I just felt ugly that something was gonna happen to that dog. I felt ugly. So I told my husband, I said, Hey, Steve, see if you can go over there and knock on the neighbor's door and let them know that the dog is out. So as we were getting closer, um, the German Shepherd was up there, and then there was a little black dog that came out too. The black dog was there. So now there's two dogs. So now that street that we are going down, it's a it's not a busy street, but cars fly down that street like crazy. I know that it's a dangerous street, and I just in my gut, I felt that these dogs are not gonna be safe, you know, left out here like this. So Steve was very cautious about like going to walk across the street. So he was gonna walk across the street to see, and he was even like, I don't know, that dog, less, you know. And then he kind of came back because we saw that the dog, the German shepherd, he was kind of going back into the yard, but he was actually pushing the little black dog into the fence, right? So then the dog, he's now is just standing, but kind of by the fence, just staring at us. And we're walking, now we're walking right in front of him. I have eye contact with the dog, trying to walk as fast as I can. And the dog, he just starts kicking up his legs like a bull is about to charge, y'all. He was gonna come for us. So the minute that we saw him kick up his paws and start to race towards us, Steve comes to kind of like block us. I go to pick my dog up. That German shepherd jumped off that elevated yard to come at us. And a car out of nowhere came and hit him like a hard chill.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

He hit him so hard.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

My eyes were on that dog the entire time. I never saw that car coming. That car came out of nowhere. I didn't hear it, I didn't see it. I just saw as the dog got hit by the car, the dog just cried and moved back to the house. And it laid in front of the curb of the house and it just lied there. My husband and I, we frantically ran across the street, and there was another car. So the German Shepherd was running across straight at us. The car that hit him was going south. There was another car that was going north that stopped right before, like the other car going north would have hit it, like if the dog had jumped off like five seconds later. So that like there was no way that that dog was not gonna get hit that day. So the dog that hit, or the car that hit him, that car kind of moved like went down and moved and parked along the side of the curb. The car that was going north that saw everything that happened, he stopped and got out of his car and went over and looked. And he was like, Whoa, he saw everything that happened. Um, we went across the street. My husband went up and was knocking on the door, was like, hey, you guys, and like I'm screaming, like, you guys, get out here. We need help. You're a dog. So the owners of the house come out. Um, they're wondering what happened. We're kind of explaining them what happened. The dog is there, he's gasping. At this point, he has blood coming out of his mouth. The dog can't move.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Trying to help him, and I'm saying, You gotta take him to that, see if they can help. You guys, my god, you look at this dog. I was not gonna make it.

SPEAKER_02 28:54

So the man goes in and he gets I'm assuming his wife. Wife comes out, she's in her bathrobe. It's it's the morning time, she's in a bathrobe, she comes out, she's crying, she's frantic.

Processing Guilt And What Empathy Is Not

SPEAKER_00 29:06

I'm telling them to like move him out of the street. Like, I want to give the dog some dignity. Get him out of the street, like hold him. And even before the owner's head came out when my husband was going and trying to like um knock on the door, I wanted to go and just hold the dog. And Steve was like, Les, just back up, don't touch him. Because like he could snap at you or something, which he was right.

SPEAKER_02 29:34

The dog was in grave condition. I kind of knew like that that would be impossible.

SPEAKER_00 29:39

So the owners, they both just knelt down next to the dog and they were petting him. I had gave my dog Zoe to my husband, because they were both nailed there, and I just came and I knelt aside like alongside the woman, and I hugged her, and we both were just crying. I was petting the dog, and I held the dog's paw, and she held was holding the dog also. The dog took his last breath, and I just embraced the woman and I told her I am so sorry. I'm so sorry for your loss. And there was so much guilt that I carried believing that I was at fault for that dog taking his last breath.

Science Of Empathy And Practice

Power, Pockets, And Prejudice

Luke 10: The Good Samaritan

Crossing Boundaries With Costly Mercy

SOAP Study Method Invitation

Study Habits, Resources, And Prayer

SPEAKER_02 30:38

If only we had gotten up earlier and not gone that route. If only if if only we weren't even out walking that day, maybe that dog wouldn't have gotten hit. If only we, you know, went to the park and stuff like we normally do on Saturdays. If only I didn't have to go pick up the croissage, and there were so many, like so much guilt that I was carrying. I couldn't fix anything. I witnessed that dog get hit, and there was so much to unpack in that. I couldn't fix it. I couldn't, and I felt that I was partly to blame for that. All I kept saying is, I'm so sorry for your loss. I couldn't solve anything. Um I stayed. I bore witness to their grief. I didn't rush her. And as she held her dog, um she watched her dog take this last breath. I watched that dog take its last breath. And that moment just reminded me that empathy isn't about having the right words, it's just about presence. No, going back a little bit. So that house after all of that had happened. Um I'm gonna come back and share the story later. I I just I I want to tell you that because there were some things that took place afterwards that um it just speaks so much to God and who he is and how God kind of protected us in that moment, also. But I want to sit here on just focusing on the lesson I learned about empathy in here. Now, my husband and I did not walk past or drive by that house for weeks because the pain was too much to carry. Walking by that house, there was a guilt that we felt. There was almost like the shame, and like we didn't want to talk about it because it was very traumatic. Um, we both are like dog people. Um, as a matter of fact, I'm so much a dog person that I often would ask God, like, why didn't you call me to rescue dogs instead of people? I need to laugh here to just shake it up a little bit, okay? Um, that pain, it like it hurt. So we avoided walking or driving by that house. It's so much so like we still don't go there that we've changed, we've completely changed our route. Now, since October, I have maybe walked by that house, like I want to say four, maybe five times since October. And this was a almost daily route for us, at least Monday through Friday, because it's a quick one mile back, really quick that we can do in the morning with my dog before we head out to work or whatnot. For Saturday morning, it's unlikely that we normally would have done that route, like I said, but the circumstances that day led us to, you know, do it that day. But Monday through Friday, we like a lot of times, maybe like two, three times a week, we would go that route and we would walk past that house. Our route has changed since then, because the pain of walking by there is just too much, too much to deal with. So last week when I was preparing for this episode, I was listening to that podcast episode that I felt God really speak to me in not just talking about empathy, but also the direction of the podcast and what I felt that people needed. So I'm taking my dog on her walk. And rather than going left on the street that we have been going down, my dog was like, Nope, I want to go straight. I want to go straight. And she was fighting me, and I was just like, Oh, all right, let's go straight, having nothing, like not even thinking about it, you know. And then we got to that house that we literally are walking right in front of. And I look over at the curb and she's sniffing around in the grass right there. And it dawns on me and it hit me like a ton of bricks. And I'm like, she's sniffing, like kind of right around where the dog died in the street on the parkway right there. She wasn't, and and I don't, I I truly believe that like she saw that happen also. So dogs are so smart. I know she knows what happened, but my dog sniffs every parkway. So I she's not sniffing there, like that's not the only parkway that she sniffed, is what I'm saying. But it just brought my attention that hey, this is this is where it happened. And as I was processing and preparing for all of this, I was questioning if I'm an empathetic person. And as I stood there and I I remembered everything that happened in front of that house, I felt Jesus in my spirit say, Leslie, you are empathetic. Empathy was kneeling with that woman as she held her dog and watched him take its last breath. That's what empathy is. You are empathetic. And just this flood of emotions came upon me. And I realized that empathy just isn't about having the right words. Empathy isn't about trying to fix a situation, empathy isn't about you know, giving opinions or any of that. Empathy is just about presence. And sometimes it is the most Christ-like thing that we can do. And right now, in what is taking place in the world, and maybe you're not relating to what's taken place, maybe you don't understand why people are in an uproar about um, you know, immigrants and non-immigrants being taken away and being held captive. And maybe it hasn't happened to you yet. Maybe you don't have a loved one or a you know, someone that it has happened to. So it's not impacting you directly. But that doesn't mean that you can have empathy for the people that it is happening to or for the families that it is affecting. And all of this just really well, that incident in itself, it just shook me. And like I said, that there are there's some things that happen afterwards that I'll share in another episode. But at that moment, there was like a shame that came because I felt like it was so much my fault. And in looking back at that, there like there was nothing we could have really done, honestly. I mean, the only thing we could have done differently is not be there. And that's why, like, I there was no way that we could have known that that was gonna happen. And God's protection just showed up immensely for us that day, also. And it was, it's been something that I've been carrying. Um, like I said, only shared it with three people, didn't share it with anybody else. And the weight of that has just been heavy because I anytime like I thought about it, I just broke down in tears, y'all. And I gotta say, I'm a little proud of myself. I didn't break down today the way that I did, but probably because I have walked through the outline of this podcast episode like four times. Because I just wanted to make sure that you hear what I am trying to say on this topic of empathy. And I wanted to give this world life example because you can probably think to yourself, like maybe you are struggling with empathy, but there are times in your life when you were empathetic, and maybe you just didn't understand what empathy truly was. Maybe you didn't understand how to exercise it. But you listening to this episode is doing just that. It is allowing you to show up more empathetic towards people and to not feel the need to always have to solve things. I think that is my biggest issue is that if I see someone hurt in pain or that needs help, like I feel like I just need to fix it. I mean, I'm a fixer. I want to help people. Sometimes I just have to learn to just sit with people, even in their pain. And maybe that's something that you have to learn also. So because I'm a coach, I want to show you the biblical side, and I also want to give you a little bit of like what research and science says about empathy. So here is my kind of science-based fact on what empathy actually does for us. Now, there is tons of research out there, and if you want to really dig into it, I would recommend you go and do your own deep dive research on like empathy and the brain. Empathy actually activates the brain's mirror neuron system. So a little bit of a tongue twister there. It actually also reduces aggression and dehumanization, and it increases connection, moral reasoning, and compassion. Empathy is learned and practice. So, in order for us to grow empathy, we have to slow down our emotional reactions. We have to choose to be curious about situations, and we have to listen to real stories. We have to, you know, kind of not just look at the headliners. We got to listen to real stories, just like the story that I shared with you guys. Listen to people, get to know people, hear stories about their life like this. And we also need to practice presence without fixing. This is how we learn empathy. Slowing down, not overreacting, choosing curiosity over conclusions, listening to real stories, and practicing presence without fixing. Now our world is losing empathy. And now here are some hard truths as to why our nation has lost empathy. Because empathy disappears when power is prioritized over people, right? Empathy disappears when pockets, money, comfort, self-interest drive decisions or drive votes. Empathy disappears when prejudice replaces proximity. This is uh what we talked about in the last episode of Power, Pockets, and Prejudice. And biblically, this pattern is clear because when societies drift from God, compassion will erode and injustice grows. Go back and look at so many things that have happened in the Bible. I am in the thick of Isaiah right now, and all of this is evident in Isaiah. Power, pockets, and prejudice, those societies completely drift from God because they've become prideful. They lead with pride, they have completely drifted away from God, they have lost compassion and injustice as just skyrocketed. Empathy is inconvenient. It is. We had to pick up flowers by 10 a.m. Otherwise, my son wasn't gonna have flowers. For his homecoming. It was very inconvenient that day. I didn't worry about that. It was inconvenient to have that sit with us the whole rest of the day. As here we're getting my son off to like his very first and last homecoming dance. He's a senior. He waited his senior year to do all these things. The emotions were heavy that day when I wanted to just enjoy my son. We didn't tell my son that day. We didn't. I didn't want to burden him with that. I didn't and and in all honesty, I didn't even want to like, I didn't want to talk about it. I wanted to forget about it. Empathy is not convenient for anybody, but it's who Jesus is and it's who we need to be. So here's our last Bible story that we're going to touch upon. Okay, and we're gonna look at a story that just confronts us, and that's the story of the Good Samaritan. So I want you to turn to Luke 10. I want you to turn to Luke 10. We're gonna read this together, y'all. Okay, I'm turning there. Luke 10, and this is verse 25 through 37, and it's the parable of the Good Samaritan. Here we go. On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. Teacher, he asked, What must I do to inherit internal life? What is written in the law? He replied, How do you read it? He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. You have answered correctly, Jesus replied, Do this and you will live. But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, And who is my neighbor? In reply, Jesus said, A man who was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers, they stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road. And when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him pass by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring an oil and wine. Then he put the man in his own donkey, took him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. Look after him, he said, and when I return, I will reimburse you for an eck any extra expense you may have had. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers? The expert in the law replied, the one who had mercy on him. Jesus told him, Go and do likewise. Excuse me for fumbling through some of that. But this is a well-known story. I'm sure many of you have maybe heard of it before, have read it yourself. Now, looking at this from so many different perspectives, the Samaritans, okay, they were uh cross-culturally hated. They he entered into danger because that stretch of road was dangerous, like he shouldn't have been there. Um, and he paid a personal cost for that. There was a personal cost of him entering that, and then that's not to mention the cost that he put out to like care for this um person, right? And uh Jesus just ends the story in saying, go and do likewise. Empathy is not just an emotion, it is an action, it is a posture. Samaritans and Jews, they were historic enemies. Samaritans, they were descendants of Israelites who intermarried after uh Assyrian exile. Now, I'm giving you a little bit of back history. I did my research on some of this to getting some like theological insight into this verse to help you understand just how significant this was for this Samaritan to do this. All right. So they were absolutely hated because they intermarried and they went against a lot of like the cultural, you know, the cultural norms of the Jews at that time. So Jews viewed Samaritans as ethnically impure and religiously compromised. Many Jews would travel miles out of their way just to avoid Samaritan territory. And this matters because Jesus intentionally chose the least likely of the hero. Empathy in the story, it crosses racial, ethnic, and religious hatred. We need empathy in our world more now than ever. Don't get this. That's how I thought. But Jesus is so smart, he wasn't gonna fall for that, you know. So Jesus just asked him, like, which of these prove to be a neighbor? And that man said, the one who showed mercy. And the man couldn't even say the Samaritan. That's how much they just couldn't stand each other. That he just couldn't even say Samaritan, right? This matters so much because Jesus shifts the focus from who deserves compassion to how compassion is shown. Jesus chose a Samaritan on a dangerous road to show empathy that is costly, inconvenient, and crosses every boundary that we are tempted to keep. We have to look at what is taking place right now. Our lawmakers they are putting boundaries in place, y'all. They're putting boundaries in place. That that's what's happening right now. We're not loving our neighbor the way we're supposed to. We're not taking care of the poor, the needy, the immigrants, the the men, the women, the children that we should be because we want to give excuses as to why they shouldn't be here, why they should be working, why they should be paying taxes, why they should look like this, why they should talk like this. Like there is a list of explanation rather than us just executing empathy and saying, Let me sit with you, let me understand your pain, let me understand why you came here. There's so much to unpack. And and I go back to with this incident with me sitting nailing with this woman who lost her dog. I now I didn't explain this part, so let me kind of backtrack a little bit also. I had said that the the dog uh came out because the fence was open, right? I very much could have blamed them and said, Why was your fence open? You let your dogs out. Well, their gardener was there that day. So even as we were sitting there kneeling with the dog as it was taking its last breath, the gardener came, the gardener came around side of the house where the gate was open. And the owner of the dog, the man, he looked up and told the gardener, you left the the gate open, the dog got out. And the gardener sat there, like with like a shock in his face, like, oh no, right? And there's so much from that. Like maybe the gardener, I don't know what happened with the gardener that he left and you know, what pain that he was carrying. You know, who knows how long he's been doing the yard of that that home and whether or not the dogs embraced him or not, if they barked at him or not. Um, and then you have the, I don't know if it was a man or woman that actually hit the dog. That car went and sat and parked on the side and just sat there, probably in shock and pain. Um, the other man that was in the car going the other way, he eventually left, but there was a neighbor that came out from across that heard everything, didn't see what happened, and was kind of figuring out and was like, that car must have been going fast. That car had to be going fast because it sounded like a big crash. And I was like, ah, I don't know. It seemed like it was going at a normal speed. There was so much blame we could have pointed. The car was going too fast down the street. We shouldn't have been walking down the street. Um, the gate shouldn't have been open. The gardener should have kept the kept it closed. The homeowners, they should have had the dogs inside if they knew that the gardeners were going to be there for the day. There's so much blame that we could have given for that incident. So much guilt is being carried by so many different people. The driver, the gardener, the homeowners, me and my husband. So much guilt. But all of that that's not what Jesus wants us to learn in empathy. It's not about pointing fingers, it's not about carrying like the guilt of it. It's about helping to lighten the load of the pain for someone else by just embracing them, just sitting there. And that good Samaritan, he didn't go and ask that person on the side of the road how he got there, how he voted, why he was there. No, he just picked him up, cleaned his wounds, put him in an inn, and made sure that he was taken care of. And that, my friend, is what empathy looks like. And we need to get back to understanding what empathy is and showing empathy for our neighbors and being a good Samaritan to others. All right. So a new thing that I want to do at the end of each um episode that I do like this, that is more of like a Bible study, is I want us to soap together. And if you're new here and you don't know that I have created a soap journal, I myself did not invent the soap method. This is a method that has been around for decades now. It was created by a pastor in a church in Hawaii, but it is a method that was introduced to me while I was on staff at church, and it has been my form of studying the Bible for over a decade now. And if you don't know what soap stands for, it is a way to study the Bible by writing down a scripture, which is the S, and then you write an observation down, you write an application and then a prayer. So SOAP, scripture, observation, application, and prayer. So today I want you to look at Luke 10 33, and I want you to look at the verse, at this verse to write a soap on. And Luke 10.33 says, But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was, and when he saw him, he took pity on him. That is the verse that I want to encourage you to do your soap on today. And in the observation in that, you can just kind of touch upon a little bit on how he saw him, seeing how uh empathetic he was, can maybe share some of the facts that I shared on the Samaritans, how the Jews didn't not like them, how they were outcasts. Uh, they were really separated from others, and Jews would avoid walking or going near a Samaritan because they just felt that they were not like godly or worthy or clean people. And just whatever observations. That observation, you look at the who, what, when, and where. That's what you're writing. Now, the application of this, something that you can think about is maybe who have you walked past instead of stepping towards? In what areas can you be more empathetic? Maybe you were empathetic. Maybe there's a situation that relates similar to mine where you're like, hey, I did show empathy to somebody. Maybe you can write that there. Application is now you're applying it to your own life. And then you write a prayer out. And that's whatever is on your heart. Maybe you can pray for our world, our nation, and starts with self to have softened hearts and to open our eyes to opportunities where we can be empathetic towards others. All right, friend, that is today's episode slash Bible study. I hope that today was insightful for you. Forgive my raspy voice today, y'all. My voice, I've been struggling with allergies, and I feel like my voice has been super raspy today. But I want to close this out in prayer, and I want to encourage you to continue to study the Bible, y'all. Get your Bible. I always encourage people, if you are new to studying the Bible, start in the Gospels, which are the first four chapters of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those are the gospels. I have a journal, a soap journal that I created that is geared towards studying the gospels. And all it is is you pick one chapter a day to write a soap on. And there's so many different studies out there. Here's my soap journal that I have. I'm holding it up for those watching on YouTube. But you can go to shopjoyfulorder.com and you can get your journal there and get the free study guide that goes with this episode. Also, I have a couple of free study guides on there that I strongly encourage you to go and download for free 99. There is no cost, there's lots of digital resources there that you can get. But while you're at it, grab yourself a soap journal to go along with the study guide, and you can start this new practice. But going back, if you're new to studying the Bible, I encourage you to start in the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Start by reading just one chapter a day. There are lots of plans out there. There's like read a Bible in a year, and many plans that require you to read like maybe four or five chapters of the Bible a day. It's overwhelming. And a lot of those plans are geared more towards just reading the Bible, not studying the Bible. If you want a heart posture to line up with God, if you want to see a real transformation in your relationship with God, it starts with studying the Bible, not just reading it. So I want to encourage you to study the Bible, kind of like we did today, really going in depth into some of the scripture and how it can apply to a certain topic or trait that we might be looking to align ourselves to be better at. And one chapter a day will make a huge difference. And then you soap on it and you just see where God takes you. Friend, it's been great. I hope that today has been an amazing eye-opening invitation to just learn to have empathy towards others. And let's just close this out in prayer. Right, Lord, I just ask that you soften our hearts, Lord, that every listener that is listening to this episode today, Lord, may you just touch their hearts, Lord. May you give them opportunities to practice empathy, Lord, to kneel down with someone, to embrace someone, to just extend a helping hand with no questions asked, Lord. There's so many ways that we can exercise empathy, Lord, but it really starts with our heart posture, Lord. So I pray, Lord, that you soften our hearts, Lord, God, that you open the hearts of our nation, our leaders that are guiding this country right now, Father God, and that you soften their hearts too, Lord, and that you allow empathy to just be a revival throughout this nation, Lord. And we need a revival of you as well coming to this nation, Father God. Align our hearts, Lord, align our spirits to, Lord, to seize these opportunities and to use discernment, Lord, and who it is you are calling us to help, Lord. So I pray, Lord God, that you just continue to mold us and to shape us into the likeness of you, Lord God, so that revival can just take place throughout this nation, Lord. We love you in your name. Amen. All right, friend. I love you. You're amazing and continuing to go chase joy.