When
you pick up a book with a title like A Hope in the Unseen,
it’s natural to think that the story is one of personal
faith in the face of stunning obstacles. The subtitle spells
out the situation: An American Odyssey from the Inner City
to the Ivy League. This 1988 publication, written by journalist
Ron Suskind, and based on Suskind's Pulitizer Prize-winning Wall
Street Journal articles, chronicles the life of Cedric Jennings,
a young African American who scales seemingly insurmountable
academic, economic and social barriers to earn a place in the
classrooms of Brown University. Beginning
with Jennings’ late high school years, the book paints
a picture of a young man living in one of Washington D.C.’s
worst neighborhoods who refuses to be defined by limitations. Constantly
disappointed by the broken promises of an incarcerated father
and with none of the material and educational advantages of his
Brown classmates, Cedric does have two things that trumped all
the absences. He is supported throughout his experience by a
mother whose dedication to her church and her son gives him solid
footing from which to leap. And he has an unyielding belief that
God wants him to succeed.
Now
27 years old, Jennings has speaking engagements all over the
country. He continued his education after graduating from Brown,
and works as a clinical social worker and a youth minister at
his childhood church--hoping to create for others some of those
things he never had.
The
story of his academic success is widely known, thanks to the
popularity of Suskind’s book. But the back story has not
been as thoroughly examined. We talk here to Cedric Jennings
about the Unseen in his life, and how it matters. What follows
are some of Cedric's thoughts about his faith in God and how
it brought him to where he is today.
EXPLOREFAITH: How has your personal faith
in God played a role in your life?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: My faith is very much influenced by other
people. I’ve watched other people model strength through
their faith…and it became a part of me.
[For
example], my mom….it’s interesting how my mom got
involved in church and how church really shaped her faith. She
discovered spirituality and God at a low point in her life, when
she was going through depression. Her discovery of church and
God helped her see her role as a parent differently--to be unselfish,
to be there all the time and model positive behavior.
EXPLOREFAITH: What
situation illustrates your faith’s effect on your life?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: Applying to school was a challenge because
I knew what I was up against. My test scores were very low
in comparison to what they would normally accept. I realized
that in other areas I needed to be very sharp--in terms of
my grades, in terms of my essays and everything. I was a very
hard worker, and I realized that faith without work is dead,
and so I had the work to back it up.
But
when I applied to Brown University my faith was tested. I really
thought that I probably wouldn’t get in because I just
didn’t fit the mold of what they would normally take. But
when I sent off my application…. first of all I prayed
over the application and second of all I acknowledged to God
that, you know, I’ve worked hard, I’ve walked upright
before You, and You promised me these things--that if I stayed
on the straight and narrow and walked upright before You, You
would grant me the desires of my heart and bless me. So when
I sent that application off, I said, “Lord, you know, well,
do Your thing.” And essentially that’s what He did.
He did His thing. He touched the hearts of those who read my
application and saw my application. It’s funny because
even before I knew I had gotten in, I just had this feeling that
I had gotten in. Before I had gotten the acceptance letter, I
was going around telling people I had gotten in!
EXPLOREFAITH: It
sounds as if you feel God’s presence very strongly in your
life. Do you feel as if God has something special in mind for
you?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: At a very young age I realized that God
had a special call on me by how He would bless me through certain
gifts of singing, certain gifts of giving a word through people
in church. I saw how God had anointed me in a powerful way …and
how that would be nurtured in church, so that has always stuck
with me….The
idea of being chosen, the idea of being different, and called
out from many. That’s why in a lot of ways for me peer
pressure wasn’t as much of an issue. I had accepted the
idea that I was indeed different, that I was indeed chosen,
so it was a little easier for me to cope.
That
has stuck with me and I continually watched God use me and operate
in my life as I continued to walk upright before Him.
EXPLOREFAITH: Do
you think there’s a relationship between your personal
faith in God on one hand and your self-confidence on the other?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: Yes, I’m created in His image and
I realize the power of the God I serve. I
don’t limit what God can do, I don’t limit God’s
power at all, and I think that was a very strong thing for
me to understand at a very young age. In doing
so I was able to exercise faith in areas where people would
normally say, "This isn’t humanly possible." Understanding
that I serve a God who is limitless by way of blessings, limitless
by way of power, that helped me to understand this is a God
that lives inside of me. I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me because he lives inside of me. That’s
a word that sticks with me.
I’ve
always had a huge amount of faith in God. My faith is constantly
increased each time I encounter and read the Word of God. My
faith is constantly expanding with each obstacle that I continue
to face in my life. You know, I
believe that obstacles are a part of God’s way of reminding
us how much we need Him while at the same time
[they] serve [to expand] our own faith in Him.
EXPLOREFAITH: Can
you talk about your life today. What are some of the challenges
you face?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: Currently, I reside in Maryland and work
in Washington, D.C., as a clinical social worker. When
I graduated from Brown I had offers to go work on Wall Street.
And when I got the offer, the Lord spoke to me and put in my
spirit that that’s not what He called me to do, that
He had called me to be a helper unto the people, to be a public
servant….
I
went back to D.C. after I graduated from Brown and worked in
technology, and at the same time I was touring for A Hope
in the Unseen and was being blessed by God each time I traveled.
It wasn’t just a matter of me telling my story, but of
hearing the testimony of others. It really blessed me. God started
to speak to my heart even more about being a public servant,
about being a servant to the people, and so that’s how
I essentially got into the role of social worker/clinician/therapist,
and that’s what my graduate training is in.
My
main contact is with kids. I love the work that I do. It’s
very rewarding for me. I certainly feel like I’m in the
mold of what God has been calling me to do. I live a
relatively modest life. I’m very comfortable in the lifestyle
I’m living now. I live out in the Maryland suburbs. I
am very much connected to the community through the work that
I do touring for A Hope in the Unseen as well as the
work I do with my church as youth minister.
EXPLOREFAITH: How
do you help a child who’s particularly troubled or challenged,
knowing from personal experience how hard their struggle is?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: What helps me to be
able to help this child is to recognize that every person has
a level of resiliency and strength about him or her. My goal
is to try to nurture that and back up their psyche, their spirit….
It
is very much a spiritual experience in that I’m having
to exercise my spirit of discernment; I’m having to exercise
my gift of healing that God has given me, healing in the sense
of how I’m able to be empathic with my client, with God
giving me the words to say to trigger certain emotions that will
help them work out the issues that they face in their lives.
Not that I hold the key or the solution, but God has given me
the gift to help facilitate management of emotions, healing of
emotions, making sense of one’s past.
EXPLOREFAITH: How
does faith play a role in your relationships?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: I’m 27 now, and in the past three
to five years, I have been dealing with the idea of friendship
and what it means, because I was having people coming in and
out of my life. Frankly having those people come in and out
of my life made me reminiscent of my dad, and the inconsistency,
how unhealthy it was and how angry it made me. It forced me
to have to deal with, “What is a friend?”
I
had a large circle of people that I considered my friends but
at this stage, at 27, I have downsized. I can say I have two
very best friends. I cherish the relationship we have because
they’re like family. I can talk to them about anything.
We don’t necessarily share the same religion or anything
like that, but they’re very accepting and respectful of
my faith and where I come from.
People
weren’t always who they said they were. I had to deal with
that and face that …. It was hard for me because these
were people I had put a lot of trust in, people who I respected
and shared a lot about my life with, and I rarely do that.
EXPLOREFAITH: In
the book, it sounded as if you didn’t trust just anybody.
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: The trust thing has always been an issue
for me. It still is now. Not as much as it was before, but
it’s something that God has been working with me on, ‘cause
that is a huge challenge for me…the “everybody
is out to get me” type of thing. For a long time, based
on my own personal experiences from the past, I had to look
at friendship through that lens, because I had been burned
and hurt so much.
EXPLOREFAITH: Did
you ever have a time when you questioned your faith?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: I
didn’t question my faith, I didn’t question my
future. I simply questioned religion, because religion is so
man-made. I remember going to my pastor and
asking him, “Why is it so rigid, the rules and regulations...almost
to the point where it’s like we’re forbidden to
live?”
This
was when I went off to Brown, when I was about 19.
Essentially,
I thought he was probably going to be a little upset with me.
But actually he wasn’t. He was very open and he was very
encouraging. I never questioned whether or not God was in what
I was doing. And I think in a lot of ways, my pastor validated
my concerns with regards to religion.
As
a church family we’ve come around a whole lot, because
growing up we were very traditional to the point where women
had to wear a certain thing and we couldn’t go to the movies
or do certain things. It was very rigid. We’ve come around
a lot and are a little more liberal.
I
still questioned how religion played out in terms of limiting
people in living their lives and being happy, because I realized
that with freedom there should be boundaries, there should be
structures, you should still operate within the will of God.
But I felt like sometimes [the church] tried to put out even
more boundaries.
EXPLOREFAITH: Some
people think that church is sometimes an impediment to spiritual
growth. What would you say to that kind of thing?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: Church is what you make it. As long as you
know that you’re not serving man, you’re serving
God, that’s what’s most important to keep in mind.
When you get locked into what man is doing, what man says,
what man dictates…that’s where you lose your sight
of God, and that’s where you don’t really hear
from God. If you’re focusing on the natural, you don’t
really hear from God in the spiritual realm.
EXPLOREFAITH: What
are your thoughts on how a person of faith can really help another
person who’s struggling?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: It’s important that we live by the
Word of God but at the same time we have to understand the
actual issues that people go through. There has to be a balance
between the spiritual and what’s in the natural. It’s
important for us to feed the souls of people with the Word
of God, but it’s also important for us to at least try
to acknowledge and understand [their] issues, because the issues
aren’t going anywhere. What I’ve
found is that people are not as free in the spirit, in worshipping
God and serving God like they should… because a lot of
the issues they face are not addressed.
EXPLOREFAITH: Are
there any specific issues you’re thinking about as you
say this?
CEDRIC
JENNINGS: Issues like sickness, health issues, AIDS,
that’s a taboo issue in the church. When you talk about
gays, that’s a taboo issue in the church. I think what
people fail to realize is that you’re not condoning the
sin by acknowledging that it’s there. You’re simply
addressing it, and you’re trying to help get a handle
on the issue to help the person get through it. That’s
what it is. That’s where people get mixed up.
Just
imagine if Christ was as judgmental as we are. Where would we
be?
Interviewed
by Nicky Hitching.
 A
Hope in the Unseen by
Ron Suskind (Broadway Publishers, 1998) tells Cedric's story.
A new edition was published in the summer of 2005 with
an afterword that updates the lives of Cedric and others
who appear in the book. To purchase A
HOPE IN THE UNSEEN visit amazon.com.
This link is provided as a service to explorefaith.org visitors
and registered users.
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