Getting on in the world is difficult for a lot of people. The fact that life is not easy comes as no surprise to those of us who have lived for some time.

A few days ago a wrote an article about a call to action, a call to stand up and do something. In that article I did not address the loneliness or isolation that can come with taking a stand.

The truth is that taking a stand may very well earn you a lot of enemies. People who you thought were your friends may isolate you.

It will hurt.

It will be painful.

It will be hard.

One of the most important lessons that you will ever learn in life is that not everyone is going to like you, and that’s okay.

Not everyone is going to appreciate your efforts, who you are, or what you do. Not everyone is going to care like you do.

So, I want to encourage you.

I want you to know that there are people out there who do appreciate what you do. There are people out there who will stand with you.

Don’t let those who don’t stand with you stop you from standing. Don’t let them stop you from being the person that you are. The world needs you.

As Martin Luther King eloquently penned in his Birmingham Letter, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation.”

https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html

In your stand, even if you find that people have turned from ;you, try to find within you the strength to keep on keeping on.