Why ask empathic questions?
Because Jesus said, "Ask, and you will receive; seek and you will find…." - Matthew 7:7
If you seek redemption to find salvation, you need to ask the kind of questions that will open your mind, heart and soul to be able to receive it (the holy, the Trinity).
In order to receive, you first have to understand what it is you are receiving, what it is preventing you from receiving and what it is you are doing wrong (in order to correct the wrongs).
Empathy is the ability to understand a person from that person's point of view as if you were experiencing the same feelings.
Empathy is required for understanding and for imagining not only what someone else is thinking, but also what the Lord may be Thinking (in terms of what will happen on Judgement Day).
Why is it important to know someone else other than self?
Because the world is run by people,
Because relationships are with people.
Without empathy you cannot understand the world or people or emotions (feelings of love, peace, kindness, compassion…) or have spiritual connections with anyone or the Lord.
If you do not ask questions when you do not understand, you will never learn, thus remain ignorant or lost (when you do not ask for directions).
For example, did you fully understand the earlier statement, "Even if you are right, rightness does not match the process or journey of life which involves a series of choices and experiences, not any one belief in an absoluteness of ridgid perfection."?
Perhaps I phrased my meaning badly or the statement needed further explanation in order to be fully understood.
Have you ever heard of the expression, "there is more than one way to skin a cat?"*
It means that there are more than one way of doing something.
Whether one skins a catfish from the head down or the tail up, does not matter as much as the task getting done.
Yet, some people would believe in the absolute rightness of doing something or believing in something one way and one way only, such as only one way to worship God or one way to practice politics.
I mean, a person can get killed for suggesting a different way of doing something or looking at something.
Yet, "the way that can be named is not the way."** - Lao Tzu.
No one can live your life's journey, but you.
How you determine your spirit journey (or any spiritual journey) is your own and your path to the Lord or away from will not be the same another's.
What is "right" for one may not be right for another, for what is a "right" life?
What is the measure of a life if it does not measure up to (the approval of) the Lord?
Ask what you need to do to receive salvation.
*Charles Kingsley used one old British form in 1855: “there are more ways of killing a cat than choking it with cream”.
**From the "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu.
