A Life Well Lived – Nelson Mandela
This week the world mourned Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest leaders of the 20th Century. He was a man who was ALL IN. A turning point for him was when he was betrayed and arrested in 1962.
I was in South Africa in 1962. The tension was palpable and even though I was only 8 years old I knew something was going on. I was on a bus in Cape Town and a black South African attempted to board the bus. He was angrily rebuffed. With the innocence that is the birth right of children I asked why he wasn’t allowed on the bus. My mother hushed me but the look of fear on her face spoke volumes about the conspiracy that is racism. I didn’t have all the details but I knew something was terribly wrong.
In June 1964 he was convicted of sabotage. Nelson Mandela surprised everyone by not testifying at his trial. Instead he made a four hour closing statement that left even the judge spellbound. His conviction and passion were electrifying. When truth is clearly and powerfully articulated no-one can deny it. His strength came from conviction in the ideal he was fighting for. He talked about the dream of a South Africa where everyone regardless of color or ethnicity could live in harmony with equal opportunity. From the docket he spoke in absolutes of an ideal that he hoped to live for but for which he was willing to die. He was All IN.
Those on trial with Mandela were all convinced they would be sentenced to death. When the judgment came down of “life in prison” they broke out in spontaneous laugher and were jubilant because they had stared death in the face and survived. However, 27 years in prison is long time, nevertheless, they were equal to the task. Surrounded by 30 inmates and deprived of all contact with the outside world they used each other as resources. Each person was like a precious book with something to teach.
God-centered leadership
Nelson Mandela’s genius was he knew when to be absolute and hold out and when to compromise or yield. This was a defining trait of his leadership and in my opinion is the quality that defines what one might call God-centered leadership. It’s in finding that balance that you discover your divine character that reflects the nature of God.
Because Mandela was absolute he could envision the day when the ideals he and others fought for could be realized. In the 1980s on several occasions he was offered his freedom but with strings attached. He resolutely refused to take the offer. He was AII IN and rebuffed the notion of compromise. By then he was in his 60s and perhaps people presumed all he wished for was to live out his remaining days in freedom. But he hadn’t given up.
He was a man of remarkable character and wisdom. At one point during his imprisonment one of his fellow inmates of a different race and higher status received bread to eat. This Indian gentleman wanted to refuse the bread because the black Africans including Mandela didn’t receive this food. Mandela insisted he eat it. He told the man that he shouldn’t give up hard won rights just because some didn’t have them. Brotherhood should result in ultimately everyone receiving more. He didn’t want anyone to become diminished.
Going for Plan A because Plan A is worth fighting for
This drive for freedom and equality defined Mandela’s life and the choices he made. Being ALL IN means sticking with the task: going for Plan A because Plan A is worth fighting for. Many people end up playing it safe, choosing to retreat when the going gets tough; preferring familiarity and predictability. To be fully alive means to be living in the present and holding on while forging ahead to achieve your dreams.
“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Philippians 3:13-14
Paul’s statement describes Mandela’s predicament well. Sometimes we can’t move forward because we are dragged down in the past, holding onto resentments, past failures, old ways of seeing the world.
God is in the recycling business
We have to manage the past by releasing it. We have to let go of guilt and regret by leaning into God’s grace. We have to quit beating ourselves up. It’s true that we can’t divorce ourselves from the past because the mistakes or poor choices did happen. But God is a spiritual environmentalist. He wants us to recycle our past by redeeming it. We need to allow ourselves to experience forgiveness and use the past for God’s purposes. We can learn from the past. We can redeem it.
Mandela said the government made a mistake in putting all of the people convicted with Mandela together in the same prison. He said they spent time reflecting on all the mistakes they made in the movement and discussed how they could be more effective. They didn’t allow themselves to be held hostage to the past. They redeemed the past and focused on “looking forward to what lies ahead.”
Many people called Mandela a saint. He fiercely rejected the notion. He told people he was no saint unless a saint is a sinner who just keeps trying again and again!
Too often we give up along the way. We follow God to the point of inconvenience but are careful to step no farther! We need a prophet to confront us as we go down the road of Plan B who can call us back to Plan A. For many people that prophet was Mandela. For me that person was Rev Moon whose vision wasn’t just freedom for a nation but the establishment of world peace as one family under God. His dream is truly a God sized dream.
ALL IN – for your dream
What God given dream do you have an all-out assault on? What God sized problem do you want to confront? What God ordained opportunity do you need to challenge? Maybe you want to bring about a positive change in your marriage or your relationship with your kids or friends.
Don’t wait for everything to come to you. You need to go get it. Like Mandela, you need to develop a sanctified stubborn streak. Don’t take the “get out of jail card” if you have to compromise your values. Decide your marriage, your family, your cause is worth fighting for and go All IN.
God cares about now
For change to happen in your life you can’t just keep on doing the same things and expect everything to be magically different. Didn’t Einstein say something to the effect that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results? Something has to give; something has to change. The past is valuable – it’s what brought you to today but it may not be sufficient to take you into the future.
We’ve all experienced this in our spiritual lives. Maybe that old prayer condition isn’t working out the same or the words that used to inspire you aren’t quite cutting it. A new effort is needed.
This isn’t a new problem. Amos 5:5 has something to offer on this point. God tells the Israelites not to worship at Bethel, Gilgal and Beersheba. Ironically, each of those destinations was a holy place that was important in the history of their faith. Jacob had received a life changing dream at Bethel and built an altar there. The Israelites had camped at Gilgal after God parted the Jordan River and Isaac dug a well and built an altar at Beersheba, the place where Abraham had made a treaty with Abimelech.
Nevertheless, God told the people not to search for him there. This is odd as God had done mighty things there in the past. However, God clearly wanted to move on. When God revealed himself to Moses he didn’t say his name is “I was.” He said I am called, “I am.” God is present in our lives and wants to do new and great things through us. God isn’t just about the past. He is all about what He can do now!
We need to honor the past because it builds our trust and faith in God when we see how God worked in people’s lives. But we are not meant to live in the past. God wants to do something through us now that is new and incredible but He is waiting for us to step up. He wants us to unleash ourselves on the world.
Leadership grounded in the 4 realms of heart
Mandela was great because he knew when to hold on and when to compromise or yield. God centered leadership is unique because it is a complex melting together of absolute, unchanging values, parental heart and benevolence. Benevolence refers to a basic attitude of concern for the well-being, happiness and prosperity of others.
Mandela was a better leader for discovering his parental heart for the nation. Through this he earned the title Tata, meaning father. After his release from prison many African National Congress members expected Mandela to tow a hard line with white South Africans. However, Mandela understood that he had to fight for the nation and all of its peoples, blacks and whites, if true freedom was to be achieved.
Unification Thought offers tremendous insight into what it means to be a leader. To become a well-rounded person who can relate to all people we need to develop our heart in four distinct areas or ways of loving. The Four Great Realms of Heart described in Unification Thought expresses a new understanding of the totality of God’s love and therefore human potential to reflect this love in the image and likeness of God.
The development of the Four Great Realms of Heart enables individuals – male and female – to become mature in heart, mature in their capacity to give and receive love. Mature in their resemblance of the invisible God as creative and giving sons and daughters – wholesome and complete. We develop a heart that can love in the true sense of the word by experiencing being unconditionally loved as a child by parents, then by loving each other as brothers and sisters and living for each other. As adults our hearts continue to grow through the union of man and woman in conjugal love and as parents raising children with unconditional love.
This experience of love is ideally first felt in the family but can be exercised at every level of society. It was Mandela’s expression of parental love for the nation and her people that propelled him to greatness. True leaders do not lead from a position of power but by holding onto absolute values rooted in God’s universal laws and principles. True Leaders love people with the heart of a parent who is willing to go to the ends of the earth for their children.
Asking the right questions
Sometimes people ask, “Does art reflect life or does life reflect art?” However, a better question would be to ask ourselves do our lives reflect God? Pray to see where you have become complacent. Where you are compromising when you should be holding out or holding out when you should be compromising. Pray to know in what area of your life you need to express more benevolence. Think about what is worth fighting for in your life. Reflect on your leadership in your family or student body or business and ask yourself what kind of leadership am I offering to those around me? In prison, Mandela wasn’t the designated leader but he emerged as such because of how he lived, and how he expressed the four realms of heart in relationship to others.
“There is no passion to be found in playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” Nelson Mandela
God Bless You Nelson Mandela. We salute you for a life well lived.
