Opportunity Should Be Grabbed

In addition to conducting runaway slaves in the American South to freedom in the American North and in Canada via the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman (whose previous name was Araminta "Minty" Ross), also gave speeches about African American freedom and women's rights.

Sometimes during her speeches Tubman had seizures and fell asleep because of a disability acquired as a teenager when a slave overseer threw a lead brick at her head intended for a runaway slave.

Some stay in anger, self-pity, unforgiveness, bitterness and other negativity in response to sickness or disability, spoiling their relationship with self and others.

The lead brick cracked Minty Ross' skull. She was unconscious for a while. For months she could not speak or walk. However, Minty Ross was grateful to God for saving her life. Also the slave for whom the lead brick was intended got away to freedom. Word about Minty got around the slave quarters, and from that time on instead of being called the childhood name of "Minty," her name was changed to her mother's name of "Harriet" for her sacrifice that helped someone else.

Over time Harriet Ross also embraced the concept of Romans 12:21 Complete Jewish Bible which says, "Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good."

After marrying John Tubman, Harriet Tubman ran away to freedom. Then she helped 300 slaves to runaway to freedom via serving as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Harriet Tubman also joined the Union Army during the Civil War and served in various capacities. In 1863 she rescued about 800 slaves via a raid on a Confederate camp. Nobody knows how many ex-slaves she saved by nursing them back to health in the Union military camps during the Civil War.

Tubman didn't let her seizures and sleeping spells stop her from public speaking, conducting on the Underground Railroad, leading a military raid and serving humanity in other capacities. She was thankful for what God gave and used it to the max.

A Persian proverb says, "Opportunity should be grabbed."

Alfredo Rodríguez was a jazz pianist in Cuba. In 2006, Rodríguez was selected to play at the Montreux Jazz Festival. While there, he performed for Quincy Jones, who was so impressed that he asked to work with Rodríguez. James C. McKinley Jr. writes in his May 22, 2013, The New York Times article "Latest in His Hyphenate? Manager Quincy Jones, After Years as a Performer-Producer, Now Scouts Young Talent," "Lured by the offer, Mr. Rodríguez defected from Cuba on a trip to Mexico in 2009, then waded across the Rio Grande at Laredo, Tex., with nothing but a few T-shirts and a suitcase full of his compositions. The vice president of Quincy Jones Productions, Adam Fell, flew Mr. Alfredo to Los Angeles, then housed him for two years while he started touring and working on a debut album." 

Some Nigerians give a kola nut to signify friendship. Harriet Tubman signified her friendship to others through service. Quincy Jones and Adam Fell combined friendship and business. Pastor and US Citizen Saeed Abedini has a friend in the American Center for Law and Justice who is organizing the letter writing and petition signing campaign to free Pastor Abedini from Evin prison in Tehran, Iran, at http://www.savesaeed.org. Pastor Abedini is in jail because he helped set up Christian house churches and a secular orphanage in Iran. Zhang Futao has a friend in ChinaAid. ChinaAid News reports in the May 18, 2013, article "Family Planning Officials in Jiangsu Province Beat Farmer to Near Death for Unauthorized Births," "Zhang Futao, of Group Five, Nangou Village, in the town of Beigou, in Xinyi city, is now hospitalized in critical condition and fighting for his life after suffering severe head injuries from the beating by the family planning officials who burst into his home at about 8 p.m. on Wednesday (May 15). They then kidnapped Zhang to Tashan Brigade and made his family pay a ransom." Zhang Futao and his wife have three children, a girl age 12, a boy age six and another girl age 4. China has a one child policy. Read the full story at http://www.chinaaid.org/2013/05/family-planning-officials-in-jiangsu.html.

People everywhere need friends. Enemies exist like Kermit Gosnell and Douglas Karpen who perform abortions killing baby boys and baby girls. Abortionists like Karpen and Gosnell even kill babies born alive after botched abortions, adolescents and women.

Fifteen-year old Denise Montoya hemorrhaged and died after a 26-week abortion done by Douglas Karpen. "“When he did an abortion, especially an over 20 week abortion, most of the time the fetus would come completely out before he cut the spinal cord or he introduced one of the instruments into the soft spot of the fetus, in order to kill the fetus,” said Deborah Edge, who worked as a surgical assistant for Karpen for about 15 years until leaving in March, 2011;" read more at http://www.lifenews.com/2013/05/15/another-gosnell-report-shows-texas-abortion-doc-kills-babies-born-alive/.

Becoming a good friend is a journey. A Japanese proverb says, "Even a thousand-mile journey begins with the first step." The first step to being a good friend is to receive a relationship with the best Friend God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Ghost (1 X 1 X 1 = 1). We cannot be the friend we should be and love people the way they need to be loved without the love and the power of God Himself coming to live inside us and changing us. John 1:12-13 Amplified Bible says, "But to as many as did receive and welcome Him. He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name--Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]"

Creyentes (believers) who are reinas y reyes (queens and kings) have a God who loves us passionately now and eternally. He is working on us to love Him and to love other people likewise. 1 John 4:7-11 New Living Translation Bible says, "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other."