Much of the meaningful work we desire to do can be traced back to empathy.
A Samaritan traveling the road came on him. When he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him.
Much of the meaningful work we desire to do can be traced back to empathy. How might God be inviting you to practice empathy along the way in this season of work?
I am convinced that our very best and most meaningful work can almost always be traced back to empathy. This is certainly true when it comes to product development and breakthrough inventions. But it’s also true in our more ordinary, daily work as humans: the way we give feedback to one another, how we treat those on our delivery routes, the technical systems we build together.
What we work on, how we work on, and how we pay attention to each other in our work—they all shape us. In other words, our doing shapes our being. And then our being shapes our doing.
In our age of change and noise, this kind of daily empathy might feel a bit counterintuitive. When the narrative that we are in our own solo ship casts us as the heroes (or potentially failures) in our individual pursuits of success, we can end up making decisions about how to spend our time on a rubric rooted in self-centeredness, preoccupation, and overstimulation.
Empathy often interrupts. That’s what happens in this story of the Good Samaritan. A man is lying hurt on the side of the road. Others are passing him by. But the Samaritan—who was presumably en route from some sort of point a to point b—lets the needs of this stranger interrupt him. He moves toward the man in need. He practices empathy along the way of where he was already going. His empathy leads to a series of decisions about using his resources—his oil, donkey, time, money—in pursuit of joining this man in his moment of need.
Consider those you are already traveling alongside in your work—the people you engage on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis as part of what you do (paid or unpaid). Consider what it might look like if you opened yourself up to consider them as you look for opportunities to practice empathy along the way.
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