I recently read an article about Nelson Mandela, chronicling the events of his life and what made him the undeterred, focused leader and freedom fighter he was. I read about his childhood, his education and his passion for justice. Somewhere in the middle of the article, I read something very fascinating. Suddenly the words ceased to be about Mandela, but about me, and all of us.
Mandela, for all his redemptive achievements and proclamations of peace, had begun as nothing more than a fierce and rowdy revolutionary. But his time in prison transformed him into the man we honor and memorialize today. “Prison was the crucible that formed the Mandela we know. The man who went into prison in 1962 was hotheaded and easily stung. The man who walked into the sunshine of the mall in Cape Town 27 years later was measured, even serene. It was a hard-won moderation… After I asked him many times during our weeks and months of conversation what was different about the man who came out of prison compared with the man who went in, he finally sighed and then said simply, “I came out mature.” 1
I don’t know that I read another word of his life’s account. I paused there, thinking “Yes… that is how it is.” We all have our crucibles, the fires we walk through that purify and hone the character that is latent and embryonic inside us. Not one of us wants to walk through them, or would choose them. Thankfully, we usually have no choice. If we pursue life, then we must endure the flames that threaten to take it from us.
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