Understanding

Understanding is hard. A woman recently spoke powerfully of understanding her mother's drug addiction when she herself became addicted. She had a much greater level of empathy.

I spoke with another person who while struggling himself with drugs, called his dad a "drunk". What is the difference?

The difference to me is that one was able to admit her failings while the other was not. When we accept our brokeness we can acknowledge others brokeness as well. We have nothing to prove. When we remain guarded, and are unwilling to admit our failings, we blast others with judgements to assure ourselves that we are nothing like the other person.

Henri Nouwen called himself a "broken healer", and talked about how much easier it was to help others when we are able to admit to ourselves and the world that we need help too.