Nope! None of the words in the title of this post are misspelled. G-r-o-k is the correct spelling of this word that means to “communicate sympathetically.”

When Paul wrote his second letter to the church at Corinth, he addressed the issue of groking. The subject is of such importance he included “all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia (Greece) in the address line.

Notice Paul’s grokology: “Thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he is our Father and the source of all mercy and comfort. For he gives us comfort in our trials so that we in turn may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in theirs. Indeed, experience shows that the more we share Christ’s suffering the more we are able to give of his encouragement. This means that if we experience trouble we can pass on to you comfort and spiritual help; for if we ourselves have been comforted we know how to encourage you to endure patiently the same sort of troubles that we have ourselves endured. We are quite confident that if you have to suffer troubles as we have done, then, like us, you will find the comfort and encouragement of God (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).”

Here are four principles from these verses:
• God is the true source of all mercy and comfort
• Whenever you are afflicted, you need His mercy and comfort
• Your experience of affliction, makes you suitable to encourage others in their affliction
• You do more than just share the experience, you share the comfort of Christ

To learn how to effectively grok, I encourage you to give some thought to these words of Paul: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15).”