A Lesson from Mandela!

I just began reading a book called "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation". This is the story that inspired the recent movie Invictus (a movie I haven't seen yet, but definately want to see). I'm only at the third chapter, but this book has already inspired me. I have to be honesty, I don't know a lot about Nelson Mandela. I know that he was a prisoner for many years, and was president of South Africe...other than that, I'm pretty much in the dark. Already, however, I have become a major Mandela fan. My father-in-law raves about Mandela...he is his hero, and from reading only 2 chapters of this book, I can see why.

I could spend this entire blog raving about how great Mandela is, and I may do that once this book is complete, however instead I am going to use an instance of Mandela's life, and talk about what we can learn from it in our spiritual life.

While Mandela was imprisoned, he faced many challenges. Just like Martin Luther King Jr., he was loved by his black brothers, but hated and despised (or at the very least, misunderstood), by the white opressors. He could have been bitter, and angry, and he could have focused all of his energy on making life miserable for the white prison guards, who did their best to make life miserable for him, but he chose a higher road. Instead of hating his enemy, he got to know them. He read books about the Afrikaner (the white south africans who were opressing him) history, learned their language and got to know them as people, not enemies. If they loved rugby, he would learn about rugby. He learned about their families, and had conversations with them. So what happened? He won them over. They no longer saw him as a threat, but instead as a friend.

So what can we learn from this? Well, as a Christian, we face opression often. Sometimes is opression from the secular world, telling us that we have to be a certain way. Other times, its opressions from fellow Christians, telling us that we have to believe certain things and act a certain way. The important thing to remember, however, is to never see someone as an enemy. Yes, they believe different things than you do, and perhaps they do things that you find offensive, but you can make common ground, and you can win them over by being a friend. For missionaries, the hardest part isn't preaching the gospel; it's building up a relationship with someone to a level that they actually want to hear what you are saying.

I remember a few years ago when the Da Vinci Code was released, there was a huge division that formed. There were those people who read the book, LOVED the book and thought it was the most amazing thing ever. And then there were those people, those Christians, who thought that the book was the root of all evil. That it was the most putird, vile thing ever to be published. A small war broke out...people bashed one another, Christians released books talking about how wrong the Da Vinci Code was. So what did I do? I did what most Christians were scared to do...I read it. I read the book, and guess what? I enjoyed it. I thought it was one of the best pieces of fiction I'd ever read to be honest with you. Did I believe everything in it? Of course not, but at least I could now have a conversation with someone who had read it, and does believe everything in it. Had I have never read it, a conversation would have gone something like this:

Me: "Hi, i see you are reading the Da Vinci Code...That book is very wrong, in what it says about Jesus"

Them: "Oh...really? Have you read it?"

Me: "No. But I've heard it from really reliable sources...hey, where are you going? I was just telling you that..."

But now that I had read it, a conversation could actually happen. I could tell them that yes, i did read it, and actually enjoyed it, but here are few things that I thought were wrong in the book, and we could then have an educated discussion about it. The same thing has happened with the dawn of the Atheist books. Books such as "The God Delusion", and "God is Not Great". I have to admit, I have not read those ones yet, but I do intend to, but the principle is the same. Instead of arguing with someone, or seeing someone as an eney, you need to understand them, learn about them. Speak their language, talk about what they like, and actually learn about it (even if you don't like it at all). This goes beyond Christians befriending non-believers. People you normally would not associate with can become good friends. You may even learn to appreciate something you never would have dreamed of appreciating. So take a lesson from Mandela. Learn about your enemies, and those who are different from you. Relate to them on their level, and you can win them over. If everyone did this, then there would be much less violence, war, and intolerance today. It starts with you!