If, in your desire to witness more effectively for Jesus, you have tried actively practising non-linguistic empathic expressions with others, you may have found that you started off quite well. After all, the theory is simple and easy to grasp. No doubt you knew what you needed to do, and you were ready with your sighs and ‘ah-ah’ reactions. But despite perhaps starting well, it’s likely that as the moments passed, you found it increasingly difficult to stay in this mode, and before long you probably switched to a less ‘emotional’ and more ‘rational’ communication style. This is the experience of many when they begin to practice empathy with real people. If it’s your experience, I encourage you not to be overly self-critical, but rather to congratulate yourself on taking the first step towards empathising using appropriate non-linguistic and non-verbal emotional expressions (mmmhs and aaaahs, etc.!). If you continue to practice this valuable skill, you’ll end up becoming good at it, and it will greatly increase your influence for good. Keep practising!