Why do I have to choose a side ?

Why do I always have to be either right or left?

Why does the world demand that my compassion comes with a political label?

It feels like we’re constantly forced into tribes. If you mourn someone on “this side,” you’re expected to ignore the pain on “that side.” If you speak up about one injustice, people assume you’ve chosen a camp, and they immediately test you to see if you belong.

But my heart doesn’t work like that.

When I look at Jesus, I see someone who simply refused to be boxed in by sides. He wept over Jerusalem, even though He knew that same city would turn against Him.

He reached out and healed the servant of a Roman soldier, a man who belonged to the empire oppressing His people.

And when He wanted to teach what love looks like, He didn’t choose a safe example — He chose a Samaritan, someone His listeners would have written off as an enemy.

It is easier to shrink my compassion down to fit my tribe. It’s easier to defend what my “side” does and stay quiet about the wrongs that make my group uncomfortable. But that’s not faithfulness. That’s tribal loyalty.

I can weep for every image-bearer of God whose life is cut short by hatred, violence, or pride.

Jesus didn’t ask me to be left or right. He asked me to be faithful. To stand against evil wherever it rises. To mourn with all who mourn. To keep my heart soft in a world that wants to harden it.

So no, I don’t want to choose a side. I want to choose compassion.

Because in the end, that’s the only way I know to follow Him.