Scribed In Light

A dear friend and I were recently discussing the chaos of the world. I asked, “Do you think it’s always been this bad, or do you think we just didn’t notice it during our age of youth? Perhaps it was veiled by our inexperience and innocence?”

We both paused, pondered, and then agreed: absolutely not. The chaos, confusion, discord, division, the disrespect, the lack of compassion and empathy—it has surfaced, progressed, and is raging out of control in the present day.

And beneath all the noise, beneath the striving, beneath the loss of compassion, lies something smaller, simpler, and far more destructive than we want to admit. It’s almost too simple to see—and maybe that’s why people miss it. A single four-letter word has caused more destruction than any weapon, any war, any headline.

Hate.

It’s the splinter buried under the skin of humanity. Small enough to slip in quietly, painful enough to fester, dangerous enough to infect an entire body if left untreated. And once it begins to spread, it doesn’t stop at one wound—it weakens everything around it.

What breaks my heart is that this simple truth keeps getting overlooked. Instead of pointing to the splinter, we argue about the swelling. We focus on the differences:

• Color
• Gender
• Religion
• Political stance
• Opinions and entitlements

And so the cycle spins. Each group shouting louder, each side demanding to be right, everyone striving to be heard—all the while fueling the very infection that started it in the first place.

Hate.

If we stopped—just for a moment—hit pause on our first emotions, and took a deep cleansing breath, we might see that unity could be found in naming the real culprit. What if we pointed the finger, not at each other, but at the disease itself? Imagine the healing if entire communities stood shoulder to shoulder and said:

“It’s not you. It’s not me. It’s not them. The enemy is hate.”

Let’s stop assuming, judging, condemning. The culprit lies within us all—just below the surface, subtle, and so easily missed.

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Flesh vs. Spirit: The Daily Battle

Scripture is clear:

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
—Ephesians 6:12

And Galatians drives it home:

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy…
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”
—Galatians 5:19–25

The battle between flesh and Spirit is not occasional. It is daily. Multiple times a day, the flesh rises up, demanding to be fed—and every single time, the Spirit offers us another way.

Think about it: when adversity hits, emotions surface. If we aren’t quick to identify those emotions, they can drive us into actions we can’t take back. We must learn to control our emotions and flesh before they control us.

And here’s the hardest truth: we all carry guilt in this. Every one of us, at some point, has fed the flesh instead of the Spirit. Maybe not with violence, but with words, judgments, impulses that gave hate a foothold.

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So Rather Than Point Fingers… Let’s Pull the Splinter Out

Here’s how we start: P U L L

• P — Pause. One deep breath. Ten seconds. Buy your soul a little silence before your flesh spends your future.
• U — Uncover the root. Name your emotion honestly: rage, envy, fear, pride. Confession is antiseptic.
• L — Lay it before God. “Father, crucify my flesh for Your Spirit. Replace ____ with ____.” (Name the fruit you need.)
• L — Live it out. Choose the Spirit’s replacement and walk it out in your words and actions.

Parents, schools, churches—we need to teach this. Not just anger management, but discernment, empathy, conflict resolution, and self-control. We must give the next generation language for their feelings, and a path away from hate before it festers.

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Because hate doesn’t need a knife, a gun, or a bomb. Hate only needs a willing heart. And love—the simplest cure of all—can disarm it.

“Simplify the chaos. The splinter isn’t skin-deep—it’s soul-deep. Pull up hate at the root, and you stop the infection before it spreads.”

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”
—Proverbs 4:23

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
—Martin Luther King Jr.

May we each choose LOVE today, not just in word but in action—hearts willing to pause, breathe deep, reassess ourselves and replace flesh responses with fruit of the spirit. Pulling our own splinters so healing can begin.

with a humble heart,
Tina N. Campbell | Scribed in Light