Choosing Love in an Age of Division:

When Jesus hung on the cross—betrayed, abandoned, tortured, and humiliated—he spoke a sentence that continues to echo across centuries, cultures, and spiritual traditions: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34).

It is a sentence that defies human instinct.

It is a sentence that transcends religious boundaries.

It is a sentence that reveals the deepest truth about the human condition:

ignorance does not erase responsibility, but it does invite compassion.

Jesus did not say, “They are innocent.”

He did not say, “They are justified.”

He did not say, “They are right.”

He said, in essence:

They are guilty, but they are blind.

They are responsible, but they are wounded.

They are acting from ignorance, fear, and ego—not from truth.

This distinction is everything.

It is the difference between condemnation and compassion.

It is the difference between retaliation and forgiveness.

It is the difference between perpetuating suffering and transforming it.

And in today’s world—a world vibrating with hatred, arrogance, and intolerance—this verse returns to me again and again, like a bell calling me back to sanity, humility, and love.

The Modern Landscape of Division

We live in a time when the world feels increasingly fractured.

People cling to labels—liberal, conservative, progressive, traditionalist—as if these identities could save them, define them, or justify them.

But labels have become weapons.

Ideologies have become cages.

Political identities have become substitutes for spiritual maturity.

I can no longer identify as liberal or conservative.

Not because I reject the values that either side claims to uphold,

but because I refuse to participate in the egoic warfare that both sides perpetuate.

I choose instead to identify as a child of the Divine Source,

a being whose allegiance is not to a political tribe

but to the eternal truth that lives beneath all tribes.

Both liberals and conservatives—at least in their loudest, most reactive forms—have become intolerant of the very corruption they themselves embody.

Each side points at the other with righteous fury,

blind to the fact that they are mirrors of one another.

Two sides of the same coin.

Two expressions of the same unhealed ego.

Two manifestations of the same wounded humanity.

The corruption they condemn in others is the corruption they refuse to see in themselves.

And so the cycle continues:

accusation, defensiveness, outrage, contempt.

A spiral of suffering fueled by unexamined pain.

The Wounded Soul Behind the Angry Voice

When I look at the world today, I do not see “good people” and “bad people.”

I see damaged humans lashing out from unhealed wounds.

I see souls who have forgotten their own divine origin.

I see people who are terrified, lonely, unseen, unheard, and spiritually starved.

Hatred is always a symptom.

Arrogance is always a mask.

Intolerance is always a cry for help.

The louder the rage, the deeper the wound.

The more aggressive the ego, the more fragile the soul beneath it.

This does not excuse harmful behavior.

But it does explain it.

And explanation is the first step toward compassion.

When Jesus said, “They do not know what they are doing,”

he was not absolving the soldiers of responsibility.

He was naming the truth that they were acting from blindness—

a blindness born of conditioning, fear, ignorance, and spiritual immaturity.

The same blindness exists today.

People do not know what they are doing when they hate.

They do not know what they are doing when they dehumanize.

They do not know what they are doing when they cling to ideology over humanity.

They think they are defending truth.

They think they are protecting morality.

They think they are fighting for justice.

But in reality, they are fighting their own unhealed selves.

The Arrogance of Self‑Righteousness

Self‑righteousness is one of the most seductive forms of ego.

It convinces us that we are the enlightened ones,

the morally superior ones,

the ones who “get it.”

It blinds us to our own shadows.

It hardens our hearts.

It turns us into the very thing we claim to oppose.

Both liberals and conservatives fall into this trap.

Both sides believe they are the guardians of truth.

Both sides believe they are justified in their contempt.

Both sides believe the other is the problem.

But self‑righteousness is spiritual poison.

It kills humility.

It kills empathy.

It kills the capacity to listen, to learn, to grow.

And ultimately, it kills love.

Choosing a Different Path

I refuse to participate in this cycle of hatred.

I refuse to let the world’s divisions dictate the state of my heart.

I refuse to let ego—mine or anyone else’s—pull me into the darkness of contempt.

I choose love.

I choose hope.

I choose grace.

I choose forgiveness.

I choose to see the divine spark in every soul,

even when that spark is buried beneath layers of fear and ego.

This is not naïveté.

This is not passivity.

This is not spiritual bypassing.

This is spiritual courage.

It takes far more strength to love in the face of hatred

than to hate in return.

It takes far more discipline to remain compassionate

than to retaliate.

It takes far more maturity to forgive

than to condemn.

Forgiveness does not mean agreement.

Forgiveness does not mean silence.

Forgiveness does not mean enabling harm.

Forgiveness means refusing to let another person’s darkness

extinguish your light.

Understanding Without Absorbing

I will strive to understand the pain that fuels people’s hatred.

I will strive to see the wounded child behind the angry adult.

I will strive to recognize the fear behind the arrogance.

But I will not be pulled into the hatred itself.

Understanding does not require participation.

Compassion does not require surrender.

Love does not require self‑betrayal.

I can hold space for someone’s suffering

without absorbing their toxicity.

I can acknowledge their humanity

without accepting their cruelty.

I can offer love

without sacrificing my own peace.

This is the balance that spiritual maturity demands.

The Mockery of the Ego‑Driven World

When you choose love in a world addicted to conflict,

you will be mocked.

You will be misunderstood.

You will be dismissed as naïve, weak, unrealistic, or foolish.

People who are trapped in ego cannot comprehend the strength of love.

People who are trapped in fear cannot comprehend the power of forgiveness.

People who are trapped in division cannot comprehend the unity of the soul.

They will mock what they do not understand.

They will ridicule what threatens their worldview.

They will attack what exposes their own wounds.

But their mockery cannot harm me.

It cannot diminish my commitment to love.

It cannot touch the truth that lives within me.

I will accept their mockery with grace.

I will receive their insults with compassion.

I will respond to their hatred with love.

Not because I am better than them,

but because I refuse to become like them.

Universal Love as the Antidote to Ego

Hatred cannot be defeated by more hatred.

Ego cannot be healed by more ego.

Division cannot be bridged by more division.

Only universal love has the power to transform.

Only universal love can dissolve the illusions of separateness.

Only universal love can heal the wounds that fuel the world’s suffering.

Universal love is not sentimental.

It is not soft.

It is not weak.

Universal love is the most powerful force in existence.

It is the energy that births galaxies.

It is the intelligence that animates life.

It is the essence that connects all beings.

When we choose universal love,

we align ourselves with the deepest truth of the universe.

We become instruments of healing.

We become vessels of grace.

We become reminders of what humanity has forgotten.

The Courage to Love Loudly

I will continue to send out universal love,

not quietly, not timidly,

but loudly and unapologetically.

I will not hide my commitment to compassion.

I will not shrink my heart to make others comfortable.

I will not dim my light to avoid ridicule.

The world needs loud love.

The world needs visible compassion.

The world needs people who are willing to stand in the fire of hatred

and radiate peace.

This is not a performance.

This is not a moral posture.

This is not an attempt to convert anyone.

This is simply who I choose to be.

A child of the Divine Source.

A bearer of universal love.

A witness to the truth that lives beneath all illusions.

The Inner Work of Staying Rooted in Love

Choosing love is not a one‑time decision.

It is a daily practice.

A moment‑by‑moment commitment.

A continual returning to the heart.

There will be days when I falter.

Days when anger rises.

Days when frustration overwhelms.

Days when the world’s cruelty feels unbearable.

But even then, I will return to love.

I will return to forgiveness.

I will return to compassion.

Because love is not just something I offer to others—

it is something I offer to myself.

Forgiving others begins with forgiving myself.

Understanding others begins with understanding myself.

Loving others begins with loving myself.

The more I heal my own wounds,

the more I can hold space for the wounds of others.

The more I soften my own ego,

the more I can see beyond the ego of others.

The more I cultivate inner peace,

the more I can bring peace into the world.

A Vision for Humanity Beyond Division

Imagine a world where people identify not by political labels

but by their shared humanity.

Imagine a world where compassion is more valued than ideology.

Imagine a world where forgiveness is seen as strength,

not weakness.

Imagine a world where love is the guiding principle

of our interactions, our institutions, our communities.

This is not a fantasy.

This is a possibility.

A possibility that begins with each of us.

We cannot control the world,

but we can control the state of our own hearts.

We cannot force others to love,

but we can choose to love anyway.

We cannot eliminate hatred,

but we can refuse to contribute to it.

Every act of love is a seed.

Every moment of compassion is a ripple.

Every choice to forgive is a doorway to transformation.

The world changes when we change.

The world heals when we heal.

The world awakens when we awaken.

Conclusion: The Path I Choose

In the end, my path is simple,

though not always easy.

I choose love.

I choose hope.

I choose grace.

I choose forgiveness.

I choose to see the divine in every soul,

even when that soul has forgotten its own divinity.

I choose to stand outside the battlefield of political ego

and root myself in the eternal truth of universal love.

I choose to respond to hatred with compassion,

to arrogance with humility,

to division with unity.

I choose to be mocked rather than hardened.

I choose to be misunderstood rather than embittered.

I choose to be loving rather than right.

Because in the end,

only love remains.

Only love heals.

Only love transforms.

Only love reveals the truth of who we are.

And so, like Jesus on the cross,

I whisper into the chaos of the world:

“Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

And then I add, from the depths of my own soul:

“And may I never forget who I am,

even when the world forgets who it is.”