Emotion is what creates motion." -- Tony Robbins
"...empathy only produces more of itself. It is never satisfied or quenched, and where empathy exists, walls fall down, and the love of God built into human beings only grows stronger as it comes in contact with someone else's empathy. Empathy, and more formally understood as love, is the most contagious and inexhaustible gift from God." --Andre Roux
I finally made a team 25 in Change meeting the other night and I cannot tell you how grateful I am that I was there. Our topic of discussion was empathy. Empathy defined by the dictionary is: Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives. We broke into our small groups to discuss further this concept of empathy and the journey we have gone through in accordance to empathy. As we sat and talked I thought a lot about the past 13 days and the pains, and disappointments that I have gone through. When I signed up for this I didn’t realize the effect it was going to have on my body, my mind nor my soul, but as I reflect back on the past 12 days I have come to see that this has already impacted my life in such ways that I wasn’t prepared for. When Minde, our missional director at Pathways Church, spoke about this revolution of 25 in Change I was totally in, both feet, ready to jump and ride the waves wherever they took me as her message was so powerful and moving. I felt compelled to do something (See “I Want Change Day”) but after these 13 days my attitude has shifted.
(Author disclaimer: I’m about to get real so buckle up. If you cannot handle the truth, stop reading and go back to your TMZ Magazine)
It’s day 13 and I’ve found my empathy directed at myself and the 24 other advocates that are partaking in this challenging endeavor instead of at the children that we are supporting. My anger no longer lies in the absence that the world isn’t doing anything, but more so that those who I consider my support system (my friends and family) are not doing anything! (Another note, thank you to all of you that have supported me, and a huge shout out to those people who are not even friends of mine but still found it important to donate. All of you are helping to change the world) Sure, they may ask, “How’s the rice and beans?” (typically with a smirk of, you’re crazy for doing this, or occasionally with a look of sympathy like, I feel bad for you as I can see this has made you miserable,) but neither of these makes me feel better, more often than not, they only make me feel worse as I want to scream, if you feel so bad for me, why don’t you do something about it? There’s a quote that I always loved but it’s never meant so much to me as it does now… “I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.” – Lily Tomlin
As I read this, I am reminded that you can rely on no one person to make a difference. If you want to see a change made, you must be the change. If you want something, you must go out and get it. If you want to be the advocate for these children all across the globe who are literally starving to death (14,000 children every day die from starvation) you must understand what it is like to starve and writhe in pain from hunger, for without this understanding, you would never be able to understand and empathize what these children go through, and you would be just like everyone else, sitting back, hands in your pockets, clinging to your dollars, with those sympathetic eyes that say, "I feel sorry for all those children who are starving, that's sad, but this sure is great pizza."
Want to be a change maker, visit: www.25inchange.org
"The major key to your better future is you." -- Jim Rohn
"Pray as if everything depends upon God, but you got to act as if everything depends on you." -- Oprah Winfrey
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