Waking up each morning I face the world just like you. We get to make choices while our world pulses. Division. Anger. Hostility over a string of endless online disagreements. Scrolling through social media feeds, thousands drawing battle lines over everything imaginable. Comments sections become battlefields where strangers tear each other apart with words they’d never speak face-to-face. The silence hurts too! All those posts sitting there ignored. At least until someone shows up to disagree.

I remember what our world was like before COVID. Before masks became symbols of love for some, signs of protest for others, instead of being simple pieces of cloth. I remember a time when school shootings weren’t regular news, when children didn’t practice hiding under desks.

To be fair, that world wasn’t perfect either. Looking back now, I can see something was missing then too. Something fundamental. I didn’t want to say it out loud because then it would be real. Then I’d have to do something about it.

Love.

That’s what was missing.

Real love. Love caring for people regardless of their politics, their beliefs, their backgrounds.

Because I’m following Jesus, I keep asking myself; what does His love actually look like in my daily life? Does it show up when someone cuts me off in traffic? When I’m scrolling past posts of people I disagree with? When I’m tempted to roll my eyes at different perspectives?

It’s in this moment i hear both sides. They say I have to pick a side. Choose Team A. Or Team B. Draw a line in the sand. Defend it. Even if someone gets hurt. Because you deserve to have your position.

You do have a third option. Instead of choosing division, I get to choose love. Instead of adding to the noise, I get to speak life.

Here’s what I’ve learned about love, though: I can’t manufacture it on my own. Left to my own devices, my love becomes conditional, selfish, limited. The love that’s transformational in every situation? That comes from first recognizing how deeply God loves me. That love flows from knowing Jesus intimately, not just knowing about Him.

I’ll be honest about the stuff I don’t understand, when it comes to God’s love.

I won’t fully grasp the depth of God’s love for us. I am unable to completely wrap my mind around what real forgiveness looks like. I mess this up regularly. No. That’s a daily thing!

But here’s what I know with absolute certainty: Jesus loves you. He loves me. God wants relationship with you. And me. When you stumble, when you get it wrong, when you fall short? He forgives you.

This isn’t about perfection. This is about choosing love over anger, hope over despair, life over death especially in our words and actions. This is about becoming people bringing peace into divided spaces, who will speak encouragement instead of condemnation.

The world gives us plenty of reasons to be pessimistic. We do have a choice. We can add to the division. Or we can choose to speak life. We can love people right where they are. Not where we think they should be.

That’s the choice I’m making today. Will you join me?