When a Man's Ways Please the Lord

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy

You may have noticed in the news, a few days ago on September 2nd, a helicopter carrying the chief minister of the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and a few of his key leaders crashed. (Rajasekhar Reddy was the chief minister of this state for the last four years.) For the first twenty-four hours officials were not able to determine exactly what had happened, whether they had crashed or made a forced landing. All that was known was that his helicopter had disappeared from radar over a remote mountain range.

He was on his way to a village to see how he could help them.


After a day of searching, and the largest scale man hunt in India history, they located the wreckage of the helicopter and recovered all the bodies. His pilot had crashed directly into a mountain side amid heavy rains.

This was not the death of an ordinary politician

Rajasekhara Reddy was a Christian, and it showed.

One of the many new IT centers

Under his four year watch the state of Andhra Pradesh experienced unprecedented economical growth. The poor found that they could move out of thatch-roofed huts into solid homes which they could own themselves. (It is projected that by 2020 nearly the entire population of the state will live in houses rather than huts) The middle class found they could upgrade from motorcycles to cars. And the rich found they could become even richer. From the poorest to the richest, opportunity abounded for all social classes more than it ever had in all of history.

I witnessed it myself.

Vintage Car Show Held in The State Capital This Year

Moreover, Indian believers were able to exercise their constitutional rights of sharing the gospel and ministering without the fear of persecution.

Signing a measure that gives 30kgs free rice for the starving and 9 hours of free power to farmers

I have been told, that whenever he was praised for his achievements, he would point upwards and say, "it's not me, it's God who has done it."

Perhaps the most amazing thing I saw in the wake of his passing was his fiercest political opponents weeping and recounting his many accomplishments. That was in addition to almost unprecedented mass public sorrow.

I was reminded of Proverbs 16:7

"When a man's ways please the LORD,
he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."

Rajasekhara Reddy was no ordinary politician. And his God was no ordinary god. He had won the admiration of the poor and the rich. Even his enemies couldn't help but honor him in his death. He worked hard, brought prosperity to his state amid fierce opposition; kept his integrity in a politically corrupt environment, was a model example of how a Chief Minister should run his state, died while serving his people, and gave the glory to God.

He is gone. India has lost one of its greatest leaders, and he will be remembered.