It's not about us

BY JULES BADGER

Growing up in New Zealand in the 1980s meant that I got badly sunburnt most summers. My poor little nose was constantly peeling and many a night was spent sleeping on my stomach with no blankets. This is no indictment on my parents, it’s just the way it was back then. Getting sunburnt was almost a rite of passage for a Kiwi kid—thankfully, 40 years on and it’s regarded as a serious type of neglect.

The SunSmart ‘Slip! Slop! Slap!’ campaign kicked off in New Zealand in 1989. I can vividly remember trying to learn the little jingle and arguing with my sisters about exactly what was being slipped and slopped ... and where. Everyone—parents, teachers, coaches—were learning about the rising incidence of melanoma, which had doubled every ten years between 1948 and 1977.

By the new millennium, a whole generation of Kiwi knew to ‘slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat’. Shade sails went up over playgrounds and sun hats were compulsory at school for all outdoor activities. My own children will tell you that they’ve both only ever been sunburnt once, maybe twice, in their lives. Covering up became second nature; such was the power and wisdom of the sun-smart campaign.

While I remember when seat belts became mandatory, my children have never questioned the necessity of ‘making it click’ (thanks, Ronald McDonald). And while ‘Girls can do anything’ was the catch-cry of my teenage years, today we fight for equality across the gender spectrum—and rightly so. I grew up with the echo of ‘Be a Tidy Kiwi’ in my ears as I almost threw my pie wrapper out the car window, while ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ is now a normal way of life, and single-use plastic bags are gone forever.

There was a time when face masks were only worn by doctors, but, for the first time, Christmas 2020 saw children whisper their wishes into the ear of a masked Santa Claus—those that weren’t in lockdown, that is. This time last year we were enjoying an idyllic pre-Covid-19 summer. Rumours of something happening in China reached our ears, but as we lounged on the shores of our island paradise, we could never have imagined what would soon impact our lives.

The world has changed dramatically since last summer. But it’s not the first time. Humankind has faced pandemics, wars, diseases and oppressions before and yet it has rallied and researched and campaigned and learnt and invented and made changes. We’ve grown wiser, embraced creativity and become more resilient—and it’s paid off. Those who suggested we slip slop slap, make it click and be a tidy Kiwi changed the world!

As The Salvation Army we are Te Ope Whakaora— the Army that brings life. What a great statement of intent! But it’s got to be more than just a clever slogan—it’s got to be a plan of attack, a way of living and being, because the measure of our efforts to bring life will be felt by the generations to come. It’s not about us.

So, what are you going to do differently in 2021 as a disciple of Jesus Christ to bring life to others and the Army of tomorrow? I leave you with the words of Catherine Booth, co-founder of The Salvation Army: ‘If we are to better the future, we must disturb the present’.