What Are Some Practical Ways that Women Can Speak Up Against Injustice?

The following is a transcribed Video Q&A, so the text may not read like an edited article would. Scroll to the bottom to view this video in its entirety. 

I think that sometimes having this massive evangelical hero complex, like we need to save the world overnight, can be really defeating and almost paralyzing, where you feel like because you can't do everything, then you can't do anything. I think that sometimes that's a real lie from the enemy to keep up silent and keep us quiet. There's a lot of ways that that happens. I find that for a lot of women, one of the number one ways that they are often silenced or quieted is just they had that thing whispering in the back of their head that says, "Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are to get up there? Who do you think you are to go and speak out against injustice? Who do you think you are to take a stand? Who do you think you are to write, or to preach, or to pursue goodness, or to stand up," or whatever else it is.

For me, I feel like the first thing, regardless of where our path leads us or where we end up, is really understanding and living like we're loved. Because for me, everything rises and falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and on him, and who he is, and my identity as his daughter and as someone who is beloved and as someone who is called to be a warrior alongside of men as an ally as opposed to opposition. There's no part of me that sees that men need to be diminished in order for women to rise up by any stretch, right? I think seeing that wholeness and seeing that freedom kind of walk out is really important. 

I think all of that really does have its roots in our discipleship and really does have its roots in our understanding of our identity. Once we know who we are, then it's a little bit more whole as we walk it out in our lives, because it will look so different for each of us. Some of us are called to be that really pragmatic policy maker who's willing to stay within slow to change structures, to make a path and build a pipeline for women coming after them, whereas others of us are really called out and called out into kind of leading in a new and a different way. Some of us are called to church ministry, and other people are called to global ministry maybe on a different scale in secular environments. I mean there's classroom, boardroom, kitchen. 

The truth is most of us women have our lives encompass all of it at some point. Very few of us have just one calling in one place and one vocation throughout our lives. There's been seasons in my life where I was doing this, and now I'm in a season of my life of being primarily a mom and a writer, and that'll change too as my children grow, and become more independent, and move into their own lives in some capacity. I'm sure my new season of life will look different then at that point. 

Again, going back to the whole thing of when you're living loved, and when you're walking in the counsel of the Holy Spirit, when you're walking with knowing the voice of your shepherd, I really believe that you'll know this is the way, and this is the way I need to walk in it. I think it all matters. Every little bit we do, every small candle we light pushes back the darkness somewhere.

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Evgeniia Andronova