Love Wins

Just imagine.
You know the Roman Empire is afraid of you. You know they want you silenced, erased. But you don’t back down. You keep preaching love. You keep healing in the name of love. And as you do, more and more people gather—people who believe in the power of that love.

Together, you become a disruption. A threat to the forces that crave control, that thrive on oppression, that use fear to keep people in line. But still, you don’t stop. You know your mission. You know why you were sent. And you know it will lead to your death.

You’ve seen what happens to those who challenge power—those who stir the waters and raise up the broken. You know the cost. And still, you keep making good trouble. Your movement grows. The people grow hopeful. They believe you will save them—maybe even overthrow the empire that crushes them.

And in the quiet of your soul, you begin to tremble. Because you are both divine and human. You can feel the fear. You imagine the suffering ahead. And you pray—“Does it have to end this way? Must I go through this?”

But deep down, you know: this is the only way. The only way to expose the evil, the violence, the injustice for what it is. The only way to show that fear does not get the last word. That death is not the end.

You go forward anyway. Knowing you must die—so that you can rise. Rise to prove that love cannot be killed. That love always lives again. And in rising, you reconnect yourself to the love that first breathed you into this world—and in doing so, reconnect the world to that same love.

And when your followers finally understand what happened, they cannot keep it to themselves. They spread the word. Your name, your mission, your love—never forgotten.

Because love wins. Always.

-Deacon Deb