Created to Be Free

I heard a story recently about Nelson Mandela. Apparently, there was a time when he met with former President Bill Clinton. Clinton asked him a rather pointed question: “When you were released from prison, Mr. Mandela, I woke my daughter at three o’clock in the morning. I wanted her to see this historic event. As you marched from the cellblock across the yard to the gate of the prison, the camera focused in on your face. I have never seen such anger, and even hatred in any man as was expressed on your face at that time. That’s not the Nelson Mandela I know today. What was that about?”

Mandela answered, “I regret that the cameras caught my anger. As I walked across the courtyard that day I thought to myself, ‘They’ve taken everything from you that matters. Your cause is dead. Your family is gone. Your friends have been killed. Now they’re releasing you, but there’s nothing left for you out there.’ And I hated them for what they had taken from me. Then, I sensed an inner voice saying to me, ‘Nelson! For twenty-seven years you were their prisoner, but you were always a free man! Don’t allow them to make you into a free man, only to turn you into their prisoner!’”

We can never be free as long as we carry around hate. We can never be free as long as we carry around bitterness. And we can never be free as long we hold on to old grudges, hurts, and wrongs.  God didn’t create us to carry that stuff around. God created us to be free. 

In a very real sense, forgiveness isn’t just about other people – it’s about us. 

Let us pray: Loving God, may your Spirit fall gently upon us and empower us to forgive and let go, so that our souls may be set free. Amen.