Invictus...

I went to see the movie Invictus with some friends from church recently. Good movie for those of you who haven't seen it. It's a bit of a sore spot for many Kiwi's due to the fact the Springboks defeat the All-Blacks in the final (possibly with some food poisoning involved), but a great story about the struggles in South Africa after apartheid ended.

I just wanted to share the poem the movie is named after. Nelson Mandela had a copy of this poem by William Henley in his cell while inprisoned for almost 30 years. It definitely has a humanist side to it, but there is a Christian side as well. I take the third stanza to be the hope we have in Christ, that we have nothing to fear in this world or the world after. The last verse as well. Not that we can make our own way to heaven, but that we are responsible for making the choice to walk that road or not. Or perhaps the whole thing could be taken as Christ's viewpoint while on earth. What do you think?

Invictus ("Unconquered")

Out of the night that covers me

Black as the pit from pole to pole

I thank whatever gods may be

for my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced or cried outloud

under the bludgeonings of chance,

my head is bloody, but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

looms but the horror of the Shade

and yet the menace of the years,

finds, and shall find, me unafraid

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.