Showing posts with label fate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fate. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

I saw the movie Invictus, then remembered the last four lines of the poem

I watched Invictus; it was extremely powerful

I'm considerably late, but I watched the movie "Invictus" last night. It was a very powerful, engaging and inspiring account of Nelson Mandela's struggle as the first black president of South Africa, especially after spending 27 years in prison for speaking against Apartheid.

Morgan Freeman as Mandela gave an Academy award level performance as he depicted Mandela trying to tear down the walls of racial hatred including black hatred. It also addressed several other important themes including:

--Forgiveness is a powerful weapon that creates better human relationships.
--True leadership is not a popularity contest
--We must exceed our own expectations

I was clearly awed by the poem "Invictus" which I was required to read in high school. An old English Teacher made us read the poem and memorize the last four lines. Each one of us had to stand in class and recite the last four lines. So today poem's last lines linger:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.


Mandela showed the powerless masses of South Africa that they could either accept conditions or change them. He derived his strength and inspiration from the poem "Invictus" by William Henley, but there are thousands of Christians who do the same thing, deriving their strength not from a poem but from the Lord.

Isaiah 40:29 "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak."

In High School I was a young idealist who internalized the words of "Invictus." Today, I'm an old idealist who has changed the last lines of Invictus to read:

I am the master of my fate:
Christ is the captain of my soul.