Dreams
The following is a quotation from an article about Harriet Tubman, the famous conductor of the Underground Railroad. The entire article can be accessed on-line. It appears in the February 2004 issue of Guideposts Magazine.
Once, as a teenager, she intervened to help a slave being attacked by her master, who was so furious that he hurled a heavy lead weight at Harriet's head. . . For days she lay unconscious, without any medical care - only her family's prayers. Wavering between life and death, Harriet had the first of what would be many vivid dreams - dreams she believed came from God.
"I was flying over fields and towns and rivers and mountains, looking down upon them like a bird, and reaching at least a great fence, or sometimes a river, over which I tried to fly. It 'peared like I wouldn't have the strength, and just as I was sinkin' down, there would be ladies all drest in white over there, and they would put out their arms and pull me 'cross."
Harriet took the Underground Railroad almost 150 miles to Philadelphia. For the first time she was a free woman. But she coudn't forget the family and friends she'd left behind. One night in 1851 she had a dream. God told her to go back down South and set her family free. "Oh, Lord, I can't - don't ask me -take somebody else," she pleaded. Bur God insisted, "It's you I want, Harriet."
The following is a quotation from an article about General Lazaro Sumbeiywo, an important peace negotiator in Sudan. The entire article can be read on-line. It appears in the Christian Science Moniter under Special Projects: Africa's Peace Seekers.
On those dark nights, he'd begin to find solace in things like the biblical story of Joseph, who spent years in servitude and prison before achieving great things.
"Even when he was in prison and forgotten," Sumbeiywo says, "he still didn't give up."Joseph was also amazingly humble, Sumbeiywo says, "Look at Joseph's language: He says, 'I don't have solutions, but God does.'
"On his knees, Sumbeiywo would ask God for direction. After drifting off to sleep, he'd awake with a start - and a "vision" or "insight," as Page describes it - about how to proceed. In those early morning hours, he'd write out solutions to the impasse of the previous day. "So many parts" of what became the final agreement," he says, "were written during those nights."
And many times that inspiration gave him the stamina to press on, despite the vitriol spewed at him.
Once, as a teenager, she intervened to help a slave being attacked by her master, who was so furious that he hurled a heavy lead weight at Harriet's head. . . For days she lay unconscious, without any medical care - only her family's prayers. Wavering between life and death, Harriet had the first of what would be many vivid dreams - dreams she believed came from God.
"I was flying over fields and towns and rivers and mountains, looking down upon them like a bird, and reaching at least a great fence, or sometimes a river, over which I tried to fly. It 'peared like I wouldn't have the strength, and just as I was sinkin' down, there would be ladies all drest in white over there, and they would put out their arms and pull me 'cross."
Harriet took the Underground Railroad almost 150 miles to Philadelphia. For the first time she was a free woman. But she coudn't forget the family and friends she'd left behind. One night in 1851 she had a dream. God told her to go back down South and set her family free. "Oh, Lord, I can't - don't ask me -take somebody else," she pleaded. Bur God insisted, "It's you I want, Harriet."
The following is a quotation from an article about General Lazaro Sumbeiywo, an important peace negotiator in Sudan. The entire article can be read on-line. It appears in the Christian Science Moniter under Special Projects: Africa's Peace Seekers.
On those dark nights, he'd begin to find solace in things like the biblical story of Joseph, who spent years in servitude and prison before achieving great things.
"Even when he was in prison and forgotten," Sumbeiywo says, "he still didn't give up."Joseph was also amazingly humble, Sumbeiywo says, "Look at Joseph's language: He says, 'I don't have solutions, but God does.'
"On his knees, Sumbeiywo would ask God for direction. After drifting off to sleep, he'd awake with a start - and a "vision" or "insight," as Page describes it - about how to proceed. In those early morning hours, he'd write out solutions to the impasse of the previous day. "So many parts" of what became the final agreement," he says, "were written during those nights."
And many times that inspiration gave him the stamina to press on, despite the vitriol spewed at him.
posted by Charles Hulin at 5:16 AM
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