Unconquered

My wife lived and worked in Africa for three years right after college (in Niger as well as South Africa), and she is dying to see the new movie Invictus, about the South African Rugby team. I guess she looked up what ‘invictus’ meant because she just sent me this email. In this unique time of life right now, the following was such an encouragement:

Invictus Poem – 1867 By William Ernest Henley (was also the poem kept by President Nelson Mandela in his cell) Invictus is Latin and means unconquered.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank God for
my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
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.

Please keep praying. Please keep giving. Please keep loving.

Much love.