Praying for Nelson Mandela; the symbol of freedom

URL - http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2013/06/praying-for-nelson-mandela-symbol-of.html

Sunday, February 11, 1990 was a heavy day for me, I was glued to the TV to watch the historical event happening in my life time; the release of Nelson Mandela from the South African Prison. I choked, and I cried. And again, today is a heavy day for me. I am anxious about his health. He is in his last days of his life, the president of South Africa has given up on Medicine and counting on blessings and prayers from the people around the world. May God keep his wisdom and the flame of freedom alive? 

Praying for him in essence is rekindling the spirit of freedom within us.

Freedom is the most cherished value for me, and to see freedom at last for a man in an apartheid nation was worth crying. A new tone of democracy was going to be set in the world for the first time in the predominantly Black African Nation.

I am also kicking myself – two weeks ago, my friend Sante Chary and I briefly talked about jumping in the plane and go visit Nelson Mandela, we had to go through a lot of rig morale to see him, we dropped the idea. Sante has a distinction among many things – to have an envelope signed by nearly eight US Presidents and several world leaders. He is a go getter and gets things done. Sante is one of the few friends where he and I have nothing to trade, nothing to gain, but just wish and support each other in our endeavors. I like this guy!

Can you imagine the power Mandela held? He shook the empire, they could have easily killed or poisoned him, but they did not have the guts to do that. What made Gandhi, Mandela, and MLK successful?

None of them had anything to gain, all they wanted was justice and harmony in the society, and that was their drive, when you become unselfish, you can do a lot of good to the world.  It begins with learning to respect the otherness of other and accepting the God given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Nelson Mandela is one of my mentors.  Some of the other joy-teary moments that I can recall are - release of Mandela, fall of the Berlin wall, Obama's election night,  Peace treaty between Israeli and Egypt, Peace between Ireland and England, Aung San Su Kyii’s release and Freedom at last for the Egyptian people. 

What made these men and women unique and powerful? They were free from the pettiness and all embracing and affectionate like the spiritual Master of all religions.  Several things were common to them; among them are:

1) No wall between them and another soul
2) No religious and political boundaries for them
3) No preference when it came to serving another human
4) The good they did, benefited larger humanity than self
5)  Justness was a paramount value for them
6) No bone of prejudice in them.
7) Their world is the same size as God's world.  

Here is information about him at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes his work through many links.