'As they say in prison, they’ll take my punches for me.' – Alexei Navalny
On August 20 2020, Alexei Navalny was poisoned on the orders of Vladimir Putin. That’s where his recently published autobiography begins.
The poisoning was no surprise. Putin murders opponents, and Navalny was then the most effective domestically and the best known internationally. But Navalny survived, thanks to Angela Merkel persuading Putin to let him be treated in Germany. The bigger surprise, to the uninitiated eye, was that five months later Navalny returned to Moscow, knowing he would be arrested, imprisoned, and, almost certainly, murdered. He was.
Why go back?
This article is from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity section on Connecting with Culture,Politics
The answer is in his notes smuggled from prison. Navalny’s faith was deeply held but lightly worn. There’s no self-pity, no grandstanding. There’s his characteristic forthrightness in calling out lies, his irrepressible good humour, his humility, his gratitude for so much, and his infectious hope. Along the way, he rejoices in God’s tender touch in a brace of miracles. His books ends with these words:
‘I have always thought, and said openly, that being a believer makes it easier to live your life, and to an even greater extent, engage in opposition politics... you lie on your bunk looking up at the one above and ask yourself whether you are a Christian in your heart of hearts... are you a disciple of the religion whose founder sacrificed himself for others, paying the price for their sins? Do you believe in the immortality of the soul and the rest of the cool stuff? If you can honestly answer yes, what is there left for you to worry about...? Don’t worry about the morrow, because the morrow is perfectly capable of taking care of itself.
'My job is to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness and leave it to good old Jesus and the rest of his family to deal with everything else. They won’t let me down and will sort out all my headaches. As they say in prison: they will take my punches for me.’
Words for us all, whatever our calling.
Mark is LICC’s Mission Champion.
This article is from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity section on Connecting with Culture, Politics