To me, love is the ultimate and perfect form of protest. I don’t mean the ooey-gooey butterflies in your stomach kind of crush love. I don’t even mean the romantic flowers and moonlit walks kind of love. This love is much deeper and stronger and wilder than those. This love can only come from God. It’s called agape love.

When the world tells you to say, “Me first,” Love makes you say “You first.”

When the world says that payback is your right, Love says turn the other cheek.

When the world tell you don’t owe anything to anybody, Love not only says to serve but to go the extra mile.

When the world tries to define what a neighbor is, Love says that it’s anyone who is in my sphere of influence who has a need that I can meet.

When the world says, “That’s just the way life is. That’s just the way you are. You can’t change,” Love says “You can’t, but I can.”

When the world hates you and curses you and beats you and spits in your face, Love says, “Forgive them for they don’t know what they’re doing.”

When the world asks, “What can be done about all the suffering in the world?” Love gives one cup of cold water to the thirsty, one warm blanket to the naked, one shoulder to cry on for the brokenhearted, one Cross to cling to for the ones who can’t save themselves.

Love inspired 120 disciples to change their world. Love doesn’t accept the status quo or the socially acceptable or the norm. Love won’t stop looking for ways to help the hopeless and give light to the ones in darkness and speak for those who have no voice.

This love isn’t just for the pretty or the popular or the prominent. This love is for the widow, the orphan, the enemy, the outcast, the leper, the broken, the ashamed, the self-doubter. This love seeks out those who need it most but deserve it least.

Love is what brings God’s people together in such a way that people notice and God is glorified. Love is what wins in the end, but love won’t force anyone to be on the winning side who doesn’t want to be. God is love and if He is in us, then we will truly love like He loved us.

And that kind of love speaks louder than any hate speech or picket sign or protest march ever did. Love is the ultimate form of nonviolent resistance. All the power of all the weapons and all the slogans and all the angry rhetoric and all the violence combined can’t even touch the power of Agape Love.

I want that. And I hope you do, too.