Last week I had the opportunity to visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. and it was amazing! With so much history, culture and artifact on display, it’s the kind of experience that should be digested slowly and deliberately over time. While I didn’t have that kind of time, I still left totally inspired by one consistent theme that ran throughout every display — and that theme was faith. Not necessarily religion, to be clear, but always faith.



Whether pioneering medical procedures or entertaining the masses, preaching from the pulpit or lecturing in front of the classroom, every step of our evolution in this country has hinged on faith. Our belief was born of necessity and earned by experience. The path to freedom, blazed by the substance of things hoped for. Our faith is not philosophical or theoretical. It is the sustenance that has nurtured our very existence.



Cramped cargo, stripped naked, shackled together, marinated in the foul diseased stench of feces, sweat, blood and death, stacked in spoon fashion for days on end, it’s faith that filtered the putrid air of the Middle Passage and faith that has sustained us through oppression. It was faith that fostered our spirits through generations of mental and physical abuse.

We’ve not only survived, but thrived, kept alive on faith. Our reflection is the very evidence of grace, and our stories are laced with miraculous just in the nick of time narratives of supernatural feats, inexplicable by conventional logic. This faith has delivered us from crisis, carried us through struggle, and planted us stronger on the other side. We have nurtured it with scripture and covered it with prayer. We’ve fasted it for hard times and stored it away for trials.

This faith isn’t logical, it’s literal. It’s been seasoned, sautéed and eaten on an empty stomach, burned for warmth and deposited into barren accounts. This faith pays tuition and meets deadlines. It creates opportunities and pioneers paths from one unbelievable prospect to the next, unfolding favor and opening doors of opportunity. This faith right here defies isms. It is unlimited by judgments or opinions. Our faith laughs in the face of projected outcomes and rational reasoning. In fact, its very existence is contingent on defying them.