When does it cross the line with empathizing with people's pain and actually taking on their

trauma or thinking you're responsible to help them heal in some way? What about being a person

who is a defender of others? When does that go from being an advocate and supporter to taking

on someone's vendetta or problem with someone else to the

point that you then begin to have hard feelings toward that person.

Today on Jesus Over Everything, talking about what happens when we start taking things on

that are not ours to take on, what I used to think and what I now think about the whole thing.

My friends have long known me as a bulldog when it comes to them. I am very committed to my

relationships and I'll defend my friends at all costs. And sometimes

in the past, that has meant that when they have been hurt by someone and have told me about it,

I have kind of gone into the mode where I have decided that that person that hurt them was

maybe not a good person. I admit that

maybe I judge them immediately by the way that my friend was treated in the past. That has sort of been

that defense of my friend that I have taken on. And even at times, I admit that I have sort of taken on their bad feelings to a point,

and I've taken that personally. And it has affected the way that I felt. And sometimes I'm

embarrassed to say, it is even affected the way that I have behaved towards them, because I have

just felt like such a strong defender

of the people that I love, of my friendships especially. That happened to me some years ago,

and it wasn't until I was put in a situation with the person that my friend was at odds with, and I had

been sort of holding bad feelings about, and I got to know that person that I realized that I really

liked her. I realized that she was a really great person. And I did not find her to be at all what my friend had sort of described to me. I had a

very different experience with her. And so I had spent all this time believing something about

...