I'm from a small town in north-central Alabama called Oneonta (ah-nee-on-ta), where the bovine population outnumbers the human population by 4:1. Just kidding. Kind of. I grew up in the Methodist church and have desired to do mission work since I was 18. While I love to see new places and travel, people are my passion. Hearing stories, listening to what has influenced people to become who they are, and experiencing life together with friends old and new are the bread and butter on my slice of life.
Perhaps I love people because we are the individual puzzle pieces of God's handiwork, and if you meet enough of us, you begin to put the pieces together and get a fleeting glimpse of a tapestry so grand that you're forced to realize that we are far too interconnected and intricate to be accidents, that Something is most assuredly at work in each part of the puzzle, and that maybe, just maybe, It profoundly cares for both the pieces and the picture. People point to a Person. That Person is why I love people. I want all people to know that Person, because meeting and knowing that Person is what changed me and still changes me for the better. That Person gives us an identity and a purpose, hope and a future, a smile in the midst of sadness, a laugh in the midst of sorrow, and a dance in the midst of silence.
Thus the World Race. I expect it to be a wild ride, because I know that Person to be a reckless son of a gun who never fails to keep things interesting and in your best interest. That Person is wild and hard to understand at times, but everything is always headed for Good. And good, I expect, it will be.
m
Obviously I also have a penchant for hyperbole and drama.
A little more practically…
I'm Meredith.
I'm best at organizing information into lists, so here's a list.
I love to sing and play guitar or piano. It's my happy place.
I self-classify as a hippie-ster, a mixture of a 70's hippie and modern hipster.
By virtue of naming myself a hipster, we can all agree that I'm actually not one.
I love coffee. I mean I really love coffee. I drink it every opportunity it's available to me. (Decaf after three, please.)
If I have to live in the USA when I grow up, I would like to own an urban coffee shop whose proceeds support a local ministry to eradicate homelessness and poverty. That's the most hipster thing I can think of. Maybe real hipsters would even come. This is a new aspiration that could completely change by the time the Race is done.
I sometimes say things before I think through what I'm saying. Like the fact that I just said "sometimes" when I really do that all the time. Dear God, please help.
I have two older brothers who are awesome, two sisters-in-law who are even more awesome, two parents who are the most awesome, and two miniature Dachshunds who are experts at timing their outdoor bathroom needs with the moment you get comfortably settled into the couch to watch a movie. Not awesome.
I love the word awesome and have become increasingly aware of the frequency at which I use it.
My whole family makes lighthearted fun of my father for being so settled into what we term his "program," his daily routine from which he is nearly impossibly removed. By the way I react when I don't get my 3:00PM decaf, I fear I can no longer make fun of him.
Any other human would've written above: "I am most satisfied with schedules and routines." Predictability makes me feel safe. Look for the Race to destroy this. Should be great fun. Anyway, even though I prefer everything around me to be as I expect, I enjoy being ironic. It's part of the wannabe hipster inside.
I strive for harmony among whatever group I'm in. I am very uncomfortable when people yell, fight, or raise their voices.
I like to make people laugh, mostly because I love laughing. My laugh sometimes sounds like a 65-year-old lifelong smoker wheeze. I told people in 8th grade that I swallowed a rubber duck. (I didn't.)
I don't things that people without teeth could mash between their gums (e.g., bananas). I blame too many youth group trips to the nursing home during impressionable years of childhood development.
Sometimes, I talk too much. Like now.
I am extremely forgetful and don't process audio well, but show me a picture and I'll remember for years.
I am an Auburn University alumna. WDE.
I speak Spanish, and Spain is my favorite country (currently, anyway). I tell The Lord all the time that He has my every permission to call me there to be a missionary. I'm waiting.
I really do love people. I crave relationships. The larger the group, the larger I get (figuratively, not physically… that'd be quite a phenomenon). Thus even though I'm undeniably extroverted, I prefer to talk with someone one-on-one in a coffee shop or on a walk rather than be in huge groups of people.
Mostly, I love God. He changed my life. He gave me life. He is life. I love it.
I expect big things from Him in the next year. And the years after. And in eternity.
I really love that Paul begins and ends most of his letters with a prayer for his readers' well-being and shalom. I wish we did it for one another. Because of that, I end most things I write with "grace and peace."
so… grace and peace.
m
