Making Goodness Fashionable

"Making Goodness Fashionable" -William Wilberforce; hero, giant, freedom fighter.

I heard this quote from William Wilberforce recently, I love the concept. Wilberforce trying to change the public mindset away from arrogance and selfishness into love, kindness and goodness.

The phrase is beautiful.

I don't know much about the man other than he was at the front of the fight against the slave-trade and there was a film made about him, he seems a good old chap.

This quote got my mind racing; racing through my own life, racing through memories, racing through thoughts about life at university, racing through the future, racing through the lost, racing through the gospel, racing through the poor and sick, racing through the rich and wealthy, racing through my arrogance and selfishness, racing back to 'True religion' (see blog from last year) and settling on hope.

How different would this world be if it was fashionable to help others? If it was cool to sacrifice our time and life for others? If goodness and kindness were expected not surprising?

In his book 'For What It's Worth', Simon Guillebaud mentions this (this is where I heard it), he talks about how Wilberforce and others brought Great Britain back into morality and decency using the idea of Goodness being fashionable.

For many in the UK today the opposite of goodness is fashionable; drunkenness, selfish ambition, greed, love of money and possessions, harsh treatment of strangers, injustice, violence, racism... Often this list includes me, so please excuse my hypocrisy.

I would love to see the next Wilberforce making goodness fashionable. I fear Bono or Bob Geldof are todays equivalent, and if so, I think more needs to be done. We need to realise there are more important things than spending £20 on a night out, more important people than ourselves, like the poor, the sick, the bereaved, the homeless, the single-parent, the young carer, the faceless and nameless afghan, the Somalians who are not pirates, the innocent prisoner, the oppressed.

We can do so much, as students, as citizens, as people, as Christians to love and help others, to make a difference.

So I set out this challenge, to myself and anyone who cares; let us live like we give a damn, let us work like we give a damn, let us love like we give a damn, let us serve like we give a damn and let us Make Goodness Fashionable through our words and deeds because we give a damn.