Ever Feel Like You’re Learning to Believe who YOU Really Are?

Last updated on: April 19, 2019 at 6:45 am by Cara Meredith

Ever Feel Like You’re Learning to Believe who YOU Really Are? 2019-04-18T19:03:07-07:00 Cara Meredith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Last weekend, Theo and I spent the extended weekend in Mississippi. As happened with Oregon just a couple of weeks before, my husband and I counted it as a chance to kill two birds with one stone – two birds encompassed by visiting family and getting the chance to share about my book.

So, we set up an event with my father-in-law, James Meredith, and a justice slinger I’m rather fond of, Jemar Tisby. We found a local bookstore to host a conversation between the three of us, and we prayed to sweet little baby Jesus that Theo and I would actually arrive in the state of Mississippi in a reasonable hour (for actually getting there was no easy feat, as our flight was twenty hours delayed).

Our three books – The Color of Compromise, The Color of Life and Three Years in Mississippi – plus a random bookstore employee.

But then, we arrived, greeted by the sweet smell of rain after a thunderstorm, of the greenest, richest soil in the United States, according to the man we call Granddaddy.

We walked through the familiar doors of their old Jackson abode, a place I not-so-secretly believe will be made an historic landmark one of these days. We hugged family – cousins and grandparents and a couple of twice-removed aunties of sorts – and said hello to Charlie the fluffy white dog. We ate pizza and salad, courtesy of Dominos, and we dreamed of Piccadilly’s (a meal we would share less than twenty-four hours later).

Then, before we knew it, after a visit to Starbucks when a not-so-friendly-Southern woman nearly ran over Theo, and we found ourselves rather consumed by the idea of a mud puddle-filled hike behind the local natural history museum, I slapped some toenail polish on my naked nails and prayed the humidity wouldn’t fluff my (already) marshmallow bangs, for it was time.

And our two hours together was a gift, something the stuff dreams are made of.

I oftentimes say that I’m an activist in training, that I’m still learning what it means to try on the phrase and really believe it for myself. It’s like I need someone else to actually call me an activist before I believe it for myself, that I don’t somehow realize that the story God’s planted on my life – the story that now exists in the form of a real, actual book – is also the story of an activist in the making.

It’s like I’m still learning how to believe in who I already am.

But when I sat on the stage beside two men I deeply admire, I couldn’t help but listen for whispers of truth: this is you, too.

I’ve no doubt that my father-in-law changed the course of history as we know it. I’ve no doubt that my new friend, Jemar, whose uncanny ability to not only remember but ramble off facts and truth and brilliance like nothing else*,* will continue to be used to impact thousands upon thousands of lives. But I’ve also no doubt that the stories written on my life count for something too, that Saturday’s pairing was not by accident.

So for now, I’ll lean into deep conversation with the woman who is my second mother, and with the children I count as my own – who can’t help but laugh and tickle and hold hands with the boy who is my flesh.

After all, at the end of the day, these people and these stories are what it’s all about. And I, for one, am honored to stand in the center, retelling the stories of my heart to anyone who’ll listen.

—

Thanks for listening, friends. And if you haven’t already, do consider pairing our three books – The Color of Compromise, The Color of Life and Three Years in Mississippi – together. They might just change you from the inside out.

*Amazon Affiliate links include

Uncategorized

James Meredith

Jemar Tsiby

The Color of Compromise

The Color of Life

Three Years in Mississippi

Previous Post

April 16, 2019

The Intersection of Calling & Closed Doors (Writes Ryan Pemberton)

Next Post

April 23, 2019 Permission to Know We're Not Alone (Thanks, Alia Joy)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book reviews Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2026 June 2026 December 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 September 2023 June 2023 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 November 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz