PUTTING ON ANOTHER'S SHOES

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound as the glory of the Lord rose from the place where it was standing. It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord on me. I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Aviv near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days—deeply distressed.

Ezekiel 3:12-15

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Maybe you have heard this saying before:

“You can’t really understand another person’s experience until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.”

Essentially, it means that we can’t possibly understand what someone is going through or has gone through unless you put yourself in their place and try to feel what they may have felt, this the analogy of putting on their shoes and walking in them. It’s easy to pass judgment on people for the way they are but what takes some time is stepping back and taking time to find out more about the person’s life experiences as often times those experiences led to a person acting or feeling the way they do.

As we continue to look at God’s word from Ezekiel, Chapter 3, we find God’s chosen prophet being placed in a situation where he will need to see the mindset of his future audience first-hand before he is asked to serve as a messenger to them. Look again at verses 12 through 15:

Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a loud rumbling sound as the glory of the Lord rose from the place where it was standing. It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound. The Spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the Lord on me. I came to the exiles who lived at Tel Aviv near the Kebar River. And there, where they were living, I sat among them for seven days—deeply distressed.

 In one moment, Ezekiel found himself in the glory of the Lord. In the next, he was sitting in deep distress among the Israelites he would be addressing as God’s spokesperson. Scripture tells us he went to that place “in bitterness” and anger of spirit as he started to see just how difficult the work ahead was going to be.

You will recall that God did not refrain from telling his newest prophet about how challenging the road ahead would be. There was full disclosure about the Israelites and their inclination toward stubborn disobedience and obstinate refusal to listen. It was this, along with their choice to sin against God even after being warned about it, that got them to their present situation, exiled for seventy years in Babylon. It was a time of unpleasantness for the Israelites, a time of oppression and suffering. And it was in this time that Ezekiel sat among his peers, experiencing their deep sorrow and grief for seven days, the standard prescribed period for mourning in Ezekiel’s day.

So what did God hope to gain through this, through placing his prophet in the middle of where the suffering was before giving him a single message to deliver?

It was all about empathy.

God wanted Ezekiel to fully share in and understand the feelings and experience of the people he would be talking to on behalf of the Lord. This would allow him to better communicate with them and thus more effective in delivering the message God wanted him to share.

God wants us to empathize with those He sends us to help as well. He wants us to take some time to get to know people, to listen to them and their experiences out of a love and caring that goes way beyond self, a love and caring that allows us to understand who they are and what they have gone through so we can best minister to them where they are in life.

For us to do that, to most effectively go about carrying out the Lord’s calling, we simply must do as God had Ezekiel do, putting on another’s shoes and walking in them for a few miles.

Amen

In Christ,

Mark

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