WALK A MILE IN HIS SHOES

1 Peter 3:8-9 All of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 

            The saying “to walk a mile in his shoes” means to experience the same life of another person. If you walk together and experience life together you become sympathetic to the sufferings and joys of the other person. You have experienced them at the same time. Because of this shared experience a new relationship becomes possible.

 This is what we call having sympathy with another person. We share such sympathy when someone dies. Each person experiences the same human loss; and they go through a similar grieving process. Sympathy results when two or more people share the same effects of an event. A slightly different experience is meant by the word empathy.

Empathy is described as an action of understanding. It means that you are aware of or sensitive to the feelings of the other person. You experience the pain or joy of the other person by their telling recounting the event and their emotional reaction to you. This means you experience the emotions, thoughts, and joy/terror through your relationship with the speaker.

           

            It is important to learn the skill of being empathetic. You learn to participate in someone else’s emotions and thoughts. In this way you are not feeling their emotions but rationally understanding the emotions they are experiencing. The counselor is free from the emotional experience of the counselee to speak truth, wisdom and knowledge to the other. This distance enables both parties to accomplish their goals. The counselor can speak truth to the situation while the counselee can know that direction, information, support and help are offered for their situation.