Anointed People: Sojourner Truth (1 of 5)

I have decided I am going to start a series about people that were used of God for a certain time and place. The first person I have decided to write about is Sojourner Truth.

Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in Swartekill, New York. She was an individual that was mightily used of God both for the Christian faith and for the purpose of equal rights for people of color eveywhere. By the time of her passing in 1883, her many activities and accomplishments included the following:

• Received a life-changing vision at a stream that proved to her God's love for her.
• After running away and getting her freedom in 1826, she began a small ministry to city prostitutes.
• Felt the call of God to become an itinerant preacher at the age of 46, and said of the experience, "the spirit calls me and I must go."
• Recruited black soldiers to fight in the Union army during the Civil War.

Here is an excerpt from her famous "Ain't I a woman" speech in 1851:

"I could work as much and eat as much as a man---when I could get it---and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen most of them sold into slavery. And when I cried out with a mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?" Sojourner continued, saying "that little man in back there, he says women can't have as much rights as men 'cause Christ wasn't a woman. Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from?" She answered her rhetorical question and said, "From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with it!"

This just goes to show you that long before Joyce Meyer, there was Sojourner Truth.

The Big Picture

There is a popular story about blind men who are feeling an elephant and trying to describe it. One man feels the tail and says, "the elephant is like a rope". Another blind man on a ladder feels the elephants skin and says the elephant is scaly and large and flat. Another man feels the elephant's ear and says that the elephant is thin. Still another feels the trunk and says that the elephant is thick, and narrow like a snake.

Obviously, someone who can see the elephant would be able to describe it in its entirety. God himself is a lot like that, because He can see the big picture. For the Christian, we can see the "big picture" as well, because we have the closest understanding to why things are the way that they are. For example, when we notice the problem of evil in the world, we know that the world is this way because of man's sinful nature. When we see love for each other, (not just romantic love either) love for country, and caring for people because they are all created in the image of God, we can get the "big picture". When we realize that God in His Son Jesus died for people all over the world, we get the "big picture" in how we are supposed to react to others.