A broken world. The news reel is full of darkness. People persecuted for their beliefs. A mass shooting in a gay club. Officers killed. Suicide bombings. Racial violence.

The news and social media spread the darkness of what is happening in the world. At this point, there is no way to ignore it or get away from it, and I don't believe that we are meant to. I think we do need to really consider how we are meant to take all of this in and how we should react.

You can't just look at the dark times and ask "where is God" or "is God really in control?" We have to trust and realize that His plans are greater than ours, and our present minds can't see the intricacies of His plan. That doesn't take away from the fact that there are real people hurting and that there is a real war to be fought. God sees those hurting people and has felt the suffering of every single one of them. I think we need to step outside of our tunnel vision of each news headline and see that the real war we are fighting is a war against hate. So, the question is not whether there is real hurt in the world but how God wants us to react in these times.

God doesn't want us to live in shame or guilty because of the things happening in the world around us. But, I think we need to consider how the way we are reacting is adding to the problem. Every single news headline and problem in the world around us today is really because of one huge problem in our world: hate. We are fighting a battle against hate every single day, all across the world. When we look to react to the tragedies around us, I think we all need to start questioning whether we are fueling the hate. I think it's so easy in these times to look for the enemy and say "well if this group would have done this" or "we just need to get rid of this group of people" or "well if we would just implement this law things would be better." Our quick leap to control these things is ultimately ignoring the group of people that are hurting and deeply affected by one of the many tragedies. Also, we have to remember that God is in control and He is the only one who has the answers to this. We must recognize that a war on hate isn't going to be resolved by enacting another law or disbanding another group.

So let's begin to grieve with the individuals that are hurting. That means finding any way to serve them. Make sure the families of those that have lost lives are well taken care of. Pray for these people. We need to put aside our differences and love people even if we don't agree with the things that they stand for. Although we may want to react to a Facebook post or a comment In the end, even if we don't agree with people, they are still hurting and we are still called to love them. So let's speak with love, and let's shine light into the darkness.

Love is the only thing that can end the war on hate.