Seek Justice // Listen, Learn, Love

StreetFest 2018 designed by Shannon Mack

When I created this theme for StreetFest this past June, I had no idea the impact it would have on my life. In fact, the process of making it was crazy, and this option wasn’t even on the table until two hours before I made the decision to use it. And yet, this theme has followed me throughout my senior year here at Calvin.

After being approached to write a blog post, I had some trouble coming up with what to talk about. Writing a piece on the theme was an idea given to me by multiple people in the office. One day, I jokingly said “why don’t we just post the print version of my speech? It has all my thoughts on the theme in it, and it can be posted tomorrow!” But after saying this, I realized that this just wasn’t true. My thoughts on the development of this theme are laid out in that speech, but this theme has continued to grow, and its point has changed for me as time has passed.

At the beginning, this theme was something of a hope for me; it laid out my dream for the day. This was something that would remind new students to think differently about words like justice and give them a new perspective on volunteering. All my thoughts about the impact of this theme were directed towards other people. But I think this has affected myself more than I ever expected it to affect others.

As a social worker, justice is a word I interact with a lot. In all my classes, we talk about what justice looks like, what it means to different people, and how to live in a just way. It wasn’t until after this theme was created that I realized just how central those three verbs are to justice. Obviously I thought they were important, but I have found myself thinking about listening, learning, and loving as important next steps when thinking about justice on all levels. I always thought about the importance of these verbs simply on a personal level, I did not even think about their place in combating structural, policy level injustice. Throughout this year however, I have come to realize that in order to achieve justice on all levels, listening to others, learning from them, and extending love to all groups are affected.

This theme has followed me not only in my course work, but in my continued work in the SLC. Each year the student staff of the SLC are tasked with writing a covenant for ourselves. This year’s covenant is titled “Listen, Learn, Love”, and it is a charge to ourselves to live out these verbs and a cry for forgiveness when we fail (which is often). It was never in my mind that these verbs would become such an integral part of the life of the office this year. But, because it is so involved in our office, I have been able to continue thinking about the impact this theme has on my life. If it wasn’t for reading that covenant each week, I don’t believe this theme would have such an impact on my thinking.

Because of the words “Seek Justice // Listen, Learn, Love” I think about those around me differently, I see injustice in a new light, listening is now a very active action, learning about others through their stories is something I am more passionate about, and extending love to those around me is a privilege. I recognize that there is no way true justice will reign while I am still here on this earth, but this is the beauty I have found in this theme in the last 6 months: we are not called to bring true justice, and God knows we cannot live out true justice, but we can do our best to seek justice while we are here. This is what I constantly remind myself of. Although I will never see what true justice looks like, I am called to do what I can to live out true justice in an effort to help bring it about.

Reading our covenant, talking about justice in my social work classes, and working in the community through my internship and service-learning all remind me daily that our world is broken, that I am broken, but that there is hope. I am so thankful that God placed these words on my heart, and that He continues to prove to me the importance of the verbs listen, learn, and love. I cannot wait to see where this theme follows me throughout my life, because it has already impacted me so much. My hope is that it will never leave me, and that I will continue to live out the call I gave to those new students back in August.

-Bri Rutgers, StreetFest Coordinator 2018, Transportation Coordinator