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“When a person tells her story and it is truly heard and understood, both she and the listener undergo actual changes in their brain circuitry. They feel a greater sense of emotional and relational connection, decreased anxiety, and greater awareness of and compassion for others’ suffering” (Curt Thompson, 2010). 

Compassion grows when we listen to one another. As the body of Christ, we each have a synchronized purpose in building a loving community that follows Christ in order to reach our community with the same love we’ve so graciously been given. Ephesians 2:19-22 reminds those of us all:

You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He’s using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he’s using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home (MSG).