The Sponge Effect

The Sponge Effect

This morning when I woke, I found the Lord had left me instructions for the day. Someone or ones needs to read pages 14-15 of The Mystery of Spiritual Sensitivity in this blog! When a person does not understand that they are highly sensitive, how high sensitivity affects a person, or the purposes God has in mind for that design, it is difficult to view it as a gift--we want not to be that way! High sensitivity makes it possible to bear other people's burdens as we as Christians are commanded to do in Gal. 6:2. Below is the excerpt the Lord indicated.

"The burden bearing design is such that, like a sponge, you sop up a portion of someone else's emotional load. A sponge retains dirt after water evaporates. As I said earlier, you retain residue of another person's trouble even with time and distance from him or her.  This is true whether it is a positive or a negative load. You probably know people who are light and bright and you always come away from times with them feeling lifted up. It is a blessing to absorb and retain some of their positive emotion. In the same way, when you are around negative people--you come away feeling heavy, sad and confused, angry or depressed. This is true for Christian and non-Christian alike--empathy, that drawing, absorbing, retentive quality of your spirit operates whether you realize it or not. Any created being must operate according to its design--watches tick, wheels roll, birds fly, and your spirit connects through empathy whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not, and whether you intend to empathize or not. It is something your spirit knows to do and does. Like gravity or the laws of physics, the absorbing qualities of your spirit operate whether you know, understand, or believe.

Whoa, this is way too much sensitivity!

When you do not know that you absorb what is in other people, you walk about like a sponge with your spirit open and unprotected.  You indiscriminately attract all sorts of things!  You fill up with other people’s emotion, trouble, and turmoil and it feels like your own.  When you look at your home life and work life you see no reason for the feelings you have.  The family life is smooth, your schedule isn’t crazy—there is no reason for feeling grief and sadness, confusion, anxiety or rage.  There is nothing in your own life to cause any of those emotions.  The confusion from the disparity between what you feel and what you intellectually know your circumstance to be multiplies the feelings, which compounds emotion to the point of excruciating intensity.  People look at you and shake their heads when you share such feelings.  You hear comments like “It’s not all that bad!”  “What is your problem?”  The problem is the weight of an overwhelming, crushing load you did not even know you were carrying!" (end excerpt)

God designed you to be highly sensitive so that you could come alongside those who are experiencing difficulties, sense their struggle--then with the sensory information you have, you are able to encourage and help lift their load to Jesus who can carry the heavy end. The whole purpose is to connect others with Jesus. Many people do not have words for their feelings, others do not know they have the right to ask for His help, others forgot in the crush of the overwhelming load, so God sends you to help them and connect them with Jesus!

High sensitivity is one of the reasons so many people feel confused, heavy, crazy, and overwhelmed, to name just a few. It makes you feel different than those around you--and that is accurate, you are different! Your desire to belong and be like everyone else will drive the desire to want to shut your sensitivity down, or off! If we turn away from the design God gave us, we turn away from Him and go off course. If you would like further information on living with high sensitivity go to www.fromgodsheart.com. Half the craziness you feel may not be your own! You are different than most, but that is a good thing!

Blessings, Carol