Beyond the History Book
Growing up, history class really frustrated me. I felt unsettled as I learned about how others were treated in the past. Thoughts of how I would have responded flooded through my mind as teachers lectured about the unjust ways people were treated...in the past. I imagined myself standing tall against slavery, hand in hand with Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, and every other justice-seeking abolitionist. I pictured myself bringing love into a world full of protests, division, and mistreatment. I heard my voice ring out against injustice and I imagined people responding in ways that broke down barriers and created deep unity. As I sat through history lesson after history lesson, I said to myself "If I lived back then, I would have done something about this."
I have always been told, "We learn about history so we can learn from it. If we don't, history has a way of repeating itself." Boy, was this a relief for my young, disheartened mind. We sat through these classes and read all these textbooks so that it would never happen again. Simple. Right?
Fast forward a few, short years and it seems there are a whole lot of people who have slept right through history class. History, as I once learned, is repeating itself.
No longer do I sit with the question, "what would I have done if I was there in the midst of this injustice?" Now I wrestle with a much more real question, "what do I do about this corrupt and unjust world I am currently living in?" A world that is still plagued by violence, hatred, racism, and division. A world that has more slaves now than any other time in history. A world that cannot seem to grasp what it means to love more than just ourselves.
What do I do in a world like this? A world that resembles what I read about in those history books...but exists in the present.
It's overwhelming. I sit here surrounded by news feeds, real life stories of real lives being hijacked, and opinions from every perspective flooding the comment sections of every form of social media. I sit here while children are being sold into a lifetime of sexual slavery because someone values money and personal pleasure over the life of another human being. I sit here while friends of mine have to live in fear simply because of the color of their skin, which they did not choose. I pray my own brothers never have to live with such fear, because they too have a beautifully different shade of skin. I sit here while marriages do not hold true to their covenant while the pornography industry sits in the wealth of this destruction. I sit here while substances destroy the potential of minds that could otherwise have been a force to be reckoned with. I sit here, surrounded by injustice, without knowing where to begin. But I will not sit silent any longer.
I will not sit silent.
Now, I am not naive enough to believe that a simple post on a blog will shut down injustice. But I am hopeful enough to believe that if we all play our part, we can be part of something bigger than ourselves. And I am bold enough to believe that silence can be deafening. I will not sit silent.
I will choose to follow in the footsteps of those who stood up against injustice for the sake of others. I will choose to speak out against hopelessness because I believe in transformation. I will choose grace and love and I will pray it will spread. I will choose to love each life that I come in contact with. I will choose to value others as human beings, loved and valued just as much as I am by the Creator. And I will choose to stand up, because sitting silent while injustice tries to reign just isn't cutting it for me anymore.
I have always been told, "We learn about history so we can learn from it. If we don't, history has a way of repeating itself." Boy, was this a relief for my young, disheartened mind. We sat through these classes and read all these textbooks so that it would never happen again. Simple. Right?
Fast forward a few, short years and it seems there are a whole lot of people who have slept right through history class. History, as I once learned, is repeating itself.
No longer do I sit with the question, "what would I have done if I was there in the midst of this injustice?" Now I wrestle with a much more real question, "what do I do about this corrupt and unjust world I am currently living in?" A world that is still plagued by violence, hatred, racism, and division. A world that has more slaves now than any other time in history. A world that cannot seem to grasp what it means to love more than just ourselves.
What do I do in a world like this? A world that resembles what I read about in those history books...but exists in the present.
It's overwhelming. I sit here surrounded by news feeds, real life stories of real lives being hijacked, and opinions from every perspective flooding the comment sections of every form of social media. I sit here while children are being sold into a lifetime of sexual slavery because someone values money and personal pleasure over the life of another human being. I sit here while friends of mine have to live in fear simply because of the color of their skin, which they did not choose. I pray my own brothers never have to live with such fear, because they too have a beautifully different shade of skin. I sit here while marriages do not hold true to their covenant while the pornography industry sits in the wealth of this destruction. I sit here while substances destroy the potential of minds that could otherwise have been a force to be reckoned with. I sit here, surrounded by injustice, without knowing where to begin. But I will not sit silent any longer.
I will not sit silent.
Now, I am not naive enough to believe that a simple post on a blog will shut down injustice. But I am hopeful enough to believe that if we all play our part, we can be part of something bigger than ourselves. And I am bold enough to believe that silence can be deafening. I will not sit silent.
I will choose to follow in the footsteps of those who stood up against injustice for the sake of others. I will choose to speak out against hopelessness because I believe in transformation. I will choose grace and love and I will pray it will spread. I will choose to love each life that I come in contact with. I will choose to value others as human beings, loved and valued just as much as I am by the Creator. And I will choose to stand up, because sitting silent while injustice tries to reign just isn't cutting it for me anymore.
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