Empaths, yes or no?

  • Christian Chat is a moderated online Christian community allowing Christians around the world to fellowship with each other in real time chat via webcam, voice, and text, with the Christian Chat app. You can also start or participate in a Bible-based discussion here in the Christian Chat Forums, where members can also share with each other their own videos, pictures, or favorite Christian music.

    If you are a Christian and need encouragement and fellowship, we're here for you! If you are not a Christian but interested in knowing more about Jesus our Lord, you're also welcome! Want to know what the Bible says, and how you can apply it to your life? Join us!

    To make new Christian friends now around the world, click here to join Christian Chat.
A

Ariel82

Guest
Yet Jesus was never numb to the pain or suffering of the masses.

I believe all humans have a measure of empathy except sociopaths who like to play mind games.

They intellectually understand emotions but constantly claim to have no emotions or to "be numb". Then they try and convince others this is a natural thing for them and may be helpful if others were numb also.

If we didn't have empathy we wouldn't care if a child is abused or others exploited and robbed by bandits.

It would be a world of people "looking out for number one" meaning themselves and not God.

Jesus was not numb. He cried tears of blood for this world.

The spirit world is not Eastern or Western. It is a reality that the Bible speaks about.

Learn from God. Read your Bible. Pray. And learn discernment from the Holy Spirit.

For not all who post on internet forums are friends to the children of God.
 

Blain

The Word Weaver
Aug 28, 2012
19,502
2,707
113
This is exactly how I am but I had no idea it was a women thing maybe I am women inside lol wait so do we call me a he or she now? what do I identify as? I don't know who I am...
All joking aside I don't think it is a direct spiritual gift but I do know that empathy is a very special gift that God has used me with many times before, to be able to put yourself in their shoes and understand what they are feeling and going through does wonders for helping others through things.
 

presidente

Senior Member
May 29, 2013
9,165
1,795
113
This is exactly how I am but I had no idea it was a women thing maybe I am women inside lol wait so do we call me a he or she now? what do I identify as? I don't know who I am...
All joking aside I don't think it is a direct spiritual gift but I do know that empathy is a very special gift that God has used me with many times before, to be able to put yourself in their shoes and understand what they are feeling and going through does wonders for helping others through things.

If you feel bad for someone when they tell you bad things that happened to them, or come into the room looking really sick, that's regular empathy.

What I was talking about in my post is perceiving someone's emotions by feeling them, sometimes when you have no hints by natural means.
 

Blain

The Word Weaver
Aug 28, 2012
19,502
2,707
113
If you feel bad for someone when they tell you bad things that happened to them, or come into the room looking really sick, that's regular empathy.

What I was talking about in my post is perceiving someone's emotions by feeling them, sometimes when you have no hints by natural means.
No what your describing is called sympathy, sympathy is to feel bad for a person or feel sorry for them. Empathy is the ability to put yourself in their shoes to connect with them and feel what they feel even if you have never been through what they are going through.
For instance one example of when God used me like this was when I was on a free poem site and I felt lead to write a poem about a parent losing their child, I was filled with soul cutting pain as I wrote I describe the mass mix of feelings and emotions as I wrote it and many people who read it and messaged me were parents who lost children and told me how it was so encouraging and how I knew exactly what they were going throuugh, they were shocked to learn I had never lost a child before
 

CharliRenee

Member
Staff member
Nov 4, 2014
6,693
7,177
113
Yet Jesus was never numb to the pain or suffering of the masses.

I believe all humans have a measure of empathy except sociopaths who like to play mind games.

They intellectually understand emotions but constantly claim to have no emotions or to "be numb". Then they try and convince others this is a natural thing for them and may be helpful if others were numb also.

If we didn't have empathy we wouldn't care if a child is abused or others exploited and robbed by bandits.

It would be a world of people "looking out for number one" meaning themselves and not God.

Jesus was not numb. He cried tears of blood for this world.

The spirit world is not Eastern or Western. It is a reality that the Bible speaks about.

Learn from God. Read your Bible. Pray. And learn discernment from the Holy Spirit.

For not all who post on internet forums are friends to the children of God.
Well said, thank you
 

CharliRenee

Member
Staff member
Nov 4, 2014
6,693
7,177
113
I'm very confused on this issue. Having feelings of empathy and compassion for others is what I was always told was the Christ-like thing to do. Why would we have been created to have these emotions, if they are wrong? Doesn't make any sense to me. This is just an issue I guess some people will never agree on.
Now you have me thinking. I guess it depends on if we are taking care of ourselves and sporting a sound mind, then our emotions I think are lined up with the will of God better this better used, maybe? Is that I wonder what they mean by balance.
 
T

theanointedsinner

Guest
Yet Jesus was never numb to the pain or suffering of the masses.

I believe all humans have a measure of empathy except sociopaths who like to play mind games.

They intellectually understand emotions but constantly claim to have no emotions or to "be numb". Then they try and convince others this is a natural thing for them and may be helpful if others were numb also.

If we didn't have empathy we wouldn't care if a child is abused or others exploited and robbed by bandits.

It would be a world of people "looking out for number one" meaning themselves and not God.

Jesus was not numb. He cried tears of blood for this world.

The spirit world is not Eastern or Western. It is a reality that the Bible speaks about.

Learn from God. Read your Bible. Pray. And learn discernment from the Holy Spirit.

For not all who post on internet forums are friends to the children of God.
I also love sociopaths, because I want to believe sociopaths are also human beings, they have nerve endings, they can feel pain
 

CharliRenee

Member
Staff member
Nov 4, 2014
6,693
7,177
113
Thank you. You explained it so much better than I did. You have a way with words. This is exactly what I was trying to say.
empath is a bad word? ok

emapthy people might run into the risk of becoming a social camelion because of how feelings can be derived from the general consensus of the crowd, and they can confuse their own feeling with the feelings of others or even the whole crowd

which makes me wonder what would happen in a crowd of social camelions?
I think that would provide a great research project, indeed!!
 
T

theanointedsinner

Guest
my theory on what the crowd of social camelion might be like ...

... they mimic how each other act while others observe others

everyone is a mirror to everyone

if they are aware that it's a reflection of themselves they'd be paralyzed by self-consciousness and become "inauthentic"

if they are not aware, they'd just "observe and imitate"
I'm just making a theory here
 

CharliRenee

Member
Staff member
Nov 4, 2014
6,693
7,177
113
my theory on what the crowd of social camelion might be like ...

... they mimic how each other act while others observe others

everyone is a mirror to everyone

if they are aware that it's a reflection of themselves they'd be paralyzed by self-consciousness and become "inauthentic"

if they are not aware, they'd just "observe and imitate"
Man, you are speaking to my inner chameleon. I need to avoid this kind of behavior, acclamate but don't disassociate with who I am in the process . It is all about balance.
 
T

theanointedsinner

Guest
Man, you are speaking to my inner chameleon. I need to avoid this kind of behavior, acclamate but don't disassociate with who I am in the process . It is all about balance.
how am I even be able to speak like that? speaking to people's soul

I have nothing to do with the occult, I swear

um, don't swear, the bible says, don't swear
 
T

theanointedsinner

Guest
I also love sociopaths, because I want to believe sociopaths are also human beings, they have nerve endings, they can feel pain
I can sense how they might feel hated by society, with their guts hated by torches and pitchforks

and, the issue to overcome the fear of cowardice

or, maybe there's something I don't understand
 

CharliRenee

Member
Staff member
Nov 4, 2014
6,693
7,177
113
how am I even be able to speak like that? speaking to people's soul

I have nothing to do with the occult, I swear

um, don't swear, the bible says, don't swear
Hahaha, You are a delight. May your wisdom, sprinkled with creative and clever wit reign on.
I can sense how they might feel hated by society, with their guts hated by torches and pitchforks

and, the issue to overcome the fear of cowardice

or, maybe there's something I don't understand
But isn't that the problem, that they lack the ability to feel or care how others are feel or how to overcome?
 
T

theanointedsinner

Guest
Hahaha, You are a delight. May your wisdom, sprinkled with creative and clever wit reign on.
But isn't that the problem, that they lack the ability to feel or care how others are feel or how to overcome?
when someone at the fish store scale the insides, my thoughts immediately go "I definitely don't want to be that fish", or "I can be thankful, I'm not that fish"

trying to imagine what not being able to feel?

hmm, what does nothing feel like? besides depression?
can't imagine
 

CharliRenee

Member
Staff member
Nov 4, 2014
6,693
7,177
113
when someone at the fish store scale the insights, my thoughts immediately go "I definitely don't want to be that fish", or "I can be thankful, I'm not that fish"

trying to imagine what not being able to feel?

hmm, what does nothing feel like? besides depression?
can't imagine
I think indifference is a mighty sad condition to be in.
 
T

theanointedsinner

Guest
when someone at the fish store scale the insides, my thoughts immediately go "I definitely don't want to be that fish", or "I can be thankful, I'm not that fish"

trying to imagine what not being able to feel?

hmm, what does nothing feel like? besides depression?
can't imagine
closest thing to not being able to feel? when I feel my own pullen tooth that happened months or years ago, it feels a bit eerie to feel the tooth with my own hands, and be like "I can't feel anything about it", and how powerfully feelings can dominate our lives when it's strongly connected
 
T

theanointedsinner

Guest
If they can't be reformed, then do as you wish
I think I felt the same sadness God would feel when the day of death comes for the lost souls, and have no choice but to honor justice and cast them, into a merciless afterlife
 

CharliRenee

Member
Staff member
Nov 4, 2014
6,693
7,177
113
closest thing to not being able to feel? when I feel my own pullen tooth that happened months or years ago, it feels a bit eerie to feel the tooth with my own hands, and be like "I can't feel anything about it", and how powerfully feelings can dominate our lives when it's strongly connected
So true, what's worse a heart so emotional that feels out of control, or no feelings at all. Of course, balance...but if you had to choose?