If someone tells you a story that causes them pain, it is not just wisdom but obligation that commands that we feel their pain. (Romans 12:15) Think of when someone brushed past your pain to get to their point. It is easy to tell when someone doesn’t care about what you have to say, when someone is not listening, when someone is just waiting to make their point. And if you can tell, they can too.

One of my new favorite movies is “The Pianist.” It’s a 2002 Holocaust film which depicts the true story of a Jewish pianist in Nazi occupied Poland. Near the end of the film (spoilers) a German officer lets him hide in an empty attic and regularly supplies him with food. Part of the genius of the movie is how the glimpses of humanity juxtapose with the overwhelming inhumanity of the war.

But if you are going to tell someone about the movie, there is a sloppy way you can do so that may make you seem like a Nazi sympathizer, and I have it on very good information that very few people would like to be seen as such. This way deals less with what you say and more with when you say it. For example, if that someone is telling you of the atrocities of the Nazi’s in WWII. If you respond with, “that’s true, but you do know that there was an officer who cared for a Jewish pianist,” you would be factually correct, but probably misunderstood.

Read More