Do you feel it? In the silence, scrolling on your phone, or in your day-to-day routines, do you sense it? It is a heaviness, a tense sense of being that has polarized and paralyzed us all. Much of it is unspoken; it is a metaphorical home filled with dysfunction that most recognize, but only speak of in private.

We send out or speak cryptic words or sentiments to others to assess what team they are on because their responses will align them as a friend or foe. Suddenly, or maybe not so suddenly, life is this or that, right or wrong, good or evil.

Families torn, friendships ended, and civility eroding because we are distracted by the thing that makes the most money in the world, hate. Our vitriol is being monetized. Many, or most if we want a dose of honesty, are consumed by fighting. People everywhere are all in on expending their energy for the sake of ideology, not honesty, as we move away from self identification into teams. Everyone is fighting for something.

Well, I decided I like a good fight too. Screw it, I’ll throw on the gloves and, without a second thought, dive into a good brawl. I will dig into my guts and give everything I’ve got to support the underdog. I feel like the crazy old lady who speaks in crazy words, but through my lens, I believe the entity being most brutally attacked and slain, the one thing we apparently think we can live without, is love.

My current reality can provide me with boxes in which to place people, labels free of charge, to simplify my thinking and laser in on pronounced enemies. Well, to that, I say, “Make me.”

I don’t care how much sensation you throw into a story you will not make me believe humanity is a lost cause.

I don’t care which villains you have found in this world you will not make me believe that good does not still reside.

I don’t care which random statistic you find you will not make me believe that the curiosity of science is not essential to bettering our future.

I do not care how you define Christian or “good” you will not make me question my relationship with my maker.

I don’t care who you say is an enemy or a terrible human, you will not make me dump those I love into boxes of who can be saved and who must be severed.

You can say it is better to focus on those with influence than the plight of the poor or needy, but you will never make me appease the powerful over the powerless.

We are all being shaped, so I ask you, friend, when you disregard the virtual world we distract ourselves with, what makes your inner being or conscience ache? What makes you want to say, “make me?” Do not let others force you into ideals because you think you have no other choice. Don’t let anyone or anything compel you to give up on the power of love. Rather, fight. Follow the flickering, dimming light that says, what would love have you do? Give, care for, and protect all, not because of a “cause” but because it is the right thing to do.