I can still remember the Cuban Missile crisis - vividly. I recall sitting in bed listening to President JFK issuing his ultimatum to the Soviet Union wondering just how they were going to square the circle in a way that meant we would all be alive in a few weeks time. And I will never forget chatting to one of my teachers the following morning. I discovered he had spent the entire night on his knees at the top of a local mountain.

Fortunately, the confrontation didn’t lead to war even though it was later revealed that the Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin had sent a crucially important message to Moscow by Western Union because there was no other means of immediate transmission! It would appear that a young boy came by on a bicycle from a telegraph agency to pick up the message and Dobrynin watched him pedal off into the night praying that he would not stop off for a Coca Cola or to dally with his girlfriend.

Looking back, I reckon my teacher would have been even more worried if he had known that at the very moment the world came closest to mutually assured destruction the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro was urging the Russians to launch a first strike on America even though this would have resulted in the total destruction of Cuba.

We often wonder how people can behave in the ways they do. But as I have reflected on the contrasting comments that have followed Castro’s death, I have been reminded that human beings are indeed ‘nature’s paradox.’ Castro for example has been applauded by many, not least Jeremy Corbyn and Michael Higgins, the president of Ireland. “A champion of social justice who stood up for something very, very different,” says Corbyn. Higgins waxed even more lyrical. “A giant among global leaders whose view was not only one of freedom for his people but for all the oppressed and excluded peoples on this planet.”

Many, many others would beg to differ. They would identify with the crowds who gathered to celebrate his death in Miami. They would identify with the biting observation of former world chess champion and Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation Garry Kasparov. “Don’t rationalise or apologise for Castro’s brutal repression, torture and murder,” he said. “He didn’t fight for freedom he destroyed it.”

I never cease to be amazed by the contradictions we see in human nature. Human beings are capable of the most incredible acts of generosity and self sacrifice and yet they can do the most dreadful things. We dehumanize people, we treat them callously and turn a blind eye to their needs because, as on ancient Hebrew prophet suggested: “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked.”

I suppose this puzzling feature of human nature was seen again last week when one national newspaper reported that: “At least 25,000 individuals tweeted in celebration of Jo Cox’s murder across a total of more than 50,000 tweets.” Her killer, Thomas Mair, was called a ‘hero’ and ‘patriot’ in many of the tweets, some of which called Mrs. Cox a ‘traitor.’

Andrew Marr captured the contradictory nature of Castro’s life when he wrote that: “The image of Fidel Castro beamed around the world earned him the adoration of a generation of student revolutionaries. It disguised the realities of a totalitarian regime.”

It does us good to remind ourselves regularly that by nature we are a mixture of good and bad, a potent cocktail of generous love and self centred absorption. And as such we live lives that stand in stark contrast to a ruler whose birthday we will be celebrating later this month.

And let’s not forget: Jesus was more than a perfect man. He is our God-given model who wants us to realise our God-given potential because He is man as man is meant to be. And thankfully we can look forward to the day when the whole world will happily submit to His rule.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]