My own ignorance landed heavily on me on September 10. When the news bulletin flashed on my phone I found myself asking “who is Charlie Kirk?” I knew literally nothing about the man and his mission. I take no pride in my lack of knowledge. I have done a root cause analysis on why I was so uninformed and am now implementing corrective action to address it.

I immediately began trying to fill the information void. I began watching video clips, reading transcripts and watching news specifically about him. There is so much available information that I can never hope to assimilate it all.

Charlie’s message was reaching and connecting with thousands of young people and it resonated beyond college campuses. His ideology and mine do not align but I acknowledge the sanctity of his life and respect for his passion. I respect him even though I do not agree with him on many topics.

I saw a quote regarding empathy and Charlie’s thoughts on the subject. The posts I viewed did not include the complete quote so I dug deeper to get the entire quote and the context. My initial reaction was that he was wrong and I could prove it. But I could not prove him wrong.

I have not been persuaded to view empathy the same way as Charlie but I can better understand his perspective. The specific word empathy is not in the Bible. That does not mean the concept is not there, just that the word is not.

I dug deeper. The word “empathy” did not come into English vocabulary until 1909. It was a translation of the German psychological term Einfühlung that means “in-feeling” or “feeling into.” Empathy could accurately be understood as being made up in 1909 to describe human to human connection in a way that had not been specifically expressed before.

I am not persuaded to dismiss the term as meaningless or irrelevant. Human to human connections are essential, even critical, for a society and culture to thrive in peace and harmony. When we dismiss or diminish the sanctity of a person’s life because of their political views, religious beliefs or any other value humans hold dear then we dismiss or diminish the sanctity of our own lives.

Jesus demonstrated the deepest, most loving connections with everyone he encountered. All of our lives are sacred to him. He experienced shared joy with people as well as shared sorrow and despair. Why else would Immanuel, God with us, cry with Mary and Martha at Lazarus’s tomb when he knew he was about to raise Lazarus from death? The tears were not for Lazarus. They were for Mary and Martha so they did not have to experience sorrow and grief alone.

I am reminded of a story I heard a long time ago. A policeman was out walking his beat. He came upon two young girls sitting on a side walk. There was a broken doll between them and they were both sobbing. As he approached, one of the girls looked up and made eye contact with him. He asked her “what is going on here?” The girl replied “my friend broke her favorite doll and she is heart broken.” The officer said “well now I understand why she is crying but why are you crying?” She responded “I love her and right now the only thing I can do to comfort her is to cry with her.”

May we all have deeper connections with our fellow human beings to laugh with them in joy and cry with them in pain, sorrow and despair.