Start small.
Written by: Steph Page
The other day I saw a social media post shining a light on how unprepared most, if not all, new parents feel when they leave the hospital with a new baby for the first time. Chris (my husband) and I often joke about the “instruction manual” for parenting. As in, there isn’t one. You take that first baby home and one little, tiny, step at a time you figure out how to be a parent. You read books, watch people you admire, and go with your gut a lot. You become a parent as your children become human beings that hopefully contribute positively to society. It doesn’t happen overnight, and most of the time it doesn’t feel very impactful. But it is oh so important.
This is how it is with justice work. We are awakened to injustice and a baby passion is born, burning inside of us. At the beginning of engaging in justice work we probably feel a myriad of emotions. Inadequate, overwhelmed, excited, motivated. Just like with parenting, none of these feelings mean we shouldn’t engage with the new found passion we have birthed. Quite the contrary, we have no other option but to engage it. To learn about it, read, educate ourselves and then take the million small steps every day that make us advocates; people who care about justice.
The definition I like of justice is “a genuine concern for people”. In the United States we live in an individualistic culture, we tend to be really great at having a genuine concern for our people, those in our immediate circles, but not for those we don’t think are ours to have concern for. Becoming aware of injustice and moving in that awareness changes us from the equivalent of a bystander in a child’s life to a parent. We become people who are re-defined because we have begun to not only see differently, but act differently as well.
We tend to think that change happens overnight, we see people who have reached some level of “success” and wonder how they did, not seeing their behind the scenes. The reality is, if we want to change, if we want our lives to impact the world in a positive way, we will have to do small things, every day.
Like parenting, we have to act like justice people before we feel we are qualified. This isn’t a ‘fake it till you make it’ kind of acting, it is a ‘take the small steps every day’ action. Allow the small steps to change you into what and who you desire to become.
The issue of human trafficking and the subsequent issues that contribute to it are huge and overwhelming. But you can engage them, and you can even make a difference. By doing a seemingly small thing today.
Who know, maybe in a few years you will look back and realize your passion baby has become an adult and impacted others for good. That is what we believe in here at Stories Foundation, when we take many small, intentional steps together we will see big impact.
So what step will you take today? Further educate yourself? Share about what you are learning? Gather your friends to learn with you? Change your shopping habits? Invest your resources? We want to come alongside you, because more than anything we believe you and your story are crucial in the fight against injustice.
