Nelson Mandela and Revolutionary Patience Plus This Week

Contributed by Salvatore Vuono from free digital photos.com

I am in awe of Nelson Mandela and his ability to change the world. He didn't rely on revenge and war, but rather he believed in peaceful negotiations toward those who made his life miserable by spending 27 years in prison, not just prison, but solitary confinement. Instead of dwelling on this horrible punishment and those who persecuted him while sitting alone all those years, he made plans to bring peace to his country. 

Pastor Lauie Haller believes he and other leaders such as Ghandi and Martin Luther King have used the wisdom of revolutionary patience ring about change. Rev. Haller writes about Dorothee Soelle who was a German feminist liberation theologian. She spent six months a year between 1975 and 1987 as a professor of systematic theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In the 1980’s Soelle coined the term “revolutionary patience” in a book by the same title. 

Haller explains "it is a complex virtue that holds in tension a sense of urgency in addressing the problems of this world, at the same time persevering and practicing resilience in the face of setbacks, failure, and disappointment." Patience is a difficult virtue to develop in our hearts. And when something as big as peace for our country is on the line, we want to have it as quickly as possible. So the revolutionary part in the practice of revolutionary patience is to keep the goal in mind and keep steadily working toward achieving the outcome no matter if there are setbacks. It's like putting one foot in front of another when climbing a mountain. You may stumble or even fall down the side, but keep going and you'll reach the top.

In this Christmas season, Nelson Mandela's life embodies the precepts of this season--hope, peace, joy, and love. Now as we honor him and respect his method of achieving peace between the peoples in his country, let us go forward with this mindset to bring hope, peace, joy, and love to our world.

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This Week:

Thursday, December 12--Paranormal mystery from Heather Fraser Brainerd and David Fraser. The character from The Sound of Sirens, Bobby, pays a visit to the J.Q. Rose blog. You will discover Bobby's hobby, a new one to me.

Sunday, December 15--I'm a guest at Roseanne Dowell's blog. Authors are sharing Christmas traditions all this month. Come on over to find out about our family tradition.