My wife and I went to see the movie Unbroken the other night with some friends and it was one of those movies that impacts you to your core. It was difficult for me to understand how this man was able to survive all that he did. It is truly a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, spirit, and sheer will to live.
I knew the story of Louis Zamperini from the New York Times best seller book “Unbroken”. I feel however that it was misnamed. It should have been entitled “Broken”.
For those who do not know this story, Louis Zamperini was an incorrigible delinquent, but through the encouragement of a friend when he became a teenager, he channeled his defiance into running and therein discovered a prodigious talent that carried him to the Berlin Olympics. But then World War II began, and the athlete became a soldier, and embarked on a journey that led to a doomed flight in 1943.
When his Army Air Force bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean, against all odds, Zamperini survived, adrift on a tiny life raft. Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, hungry sharks, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and beyond that trials and tribulation even greater; he would be brutally incarcerated and tortured at the hands of his psychopathic Japanese POW camp commander nicknamed “Bird”.
Though driven to the limits of endurance, through sheer will Zamperini triumphed in the face of tragedy until liberated by the allies at the end of the war. The most intriguing thing to me is at the end of the movie he is briefly shown returning to Japan to forgive his captors.
After the movie my buddy spent the better part of an hour explaining what he would do to gain retribution from his brutal captors. He went over it in minute detail, laced with a rather redneck step by step portrayal of his brutal ideas for payback to the totally evil Japanese commander who took delight in torturing Zamperini.
Forgiveness was not on my buddy’s list and I would wager that most people who view this movie come away with the exact same notion.
Sadly the rest of the story (and most important part) was not depicted in the movie. After the camp was liberated and Zamperini returned home a hero, he went on to become a complete alcoholic who suffered from terrible dreams, and a marriage that he very nearly destroyed.
What the life raft and POW camp could not do to him, alcohol and bad memories did. This strong willed man who endured so much finally reached his breaking point, and when he was at this his lowest point, he attended the 1949 Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles — It was there that he experienced the power of the Gospel and the Holy Spirit. He received Christ and subsequently Zamperini overcame his alcoholism, night terrors and failing marriage and went on to live a full and joyous Christ-centered life until his passing last year at age 97.
I can relate to Zamperini and his story. I was telling a friend the other day that my life reminds me of a wild stallion’s life. Once I was captured the old rebellious wild ways did not die easy. Picture a wild stallion neighing, snorting and crazily running around a corral kicking and biting and trying to escape with reckless abandon. On several occasions I broke free and thundered off across the plains only to once again feel a burning rope tighten around my neck and be brought to a screeching halt and led back into the corral for another lesson with the training whip.
Today I consider myself broken and have simmered down and have gone on out to pasture, (some might say I’m ready for the glue factory). Though I occasionally gaze longingly at those wide open spaces and my nostrils semi-flare and my eyes widen a little as I see the open gate and my wild rebellious nature tells me to gallop off into the sunset, the Holy Spirt nudges me and gently says, “Whoa old boy, you’ve tried all of that, better to stay here where life is good”.
I gently nod my grizzled up gray head in agreement and slowly make my way towards some tasty oats and hay and the feeling quickly passes.
The Holy Spirit will change a person completely; I can attest to that and so could Mr. Zamperini. Forgiveness is one of the most difficult things a Christian faces. I know Louis Zamperini was completely broken because he found it in his heart to forgive those who had done unspeakable things to him. I forgave those in the past who had done bad things to me and asked forgiveness for the things I’d done. It is a natural thing for a Christian to do when they totally surrender to God.
It’s a shame that Angelina Jolie missed the point when she directed this movie. Jesus Christ was dying on the cross after having been falsely convicted of crimes that He did not commit, He was beaten beyond recognition, spit upon, cursed, his beard was literally ripped from his face, a crown of sharp thorns was beaten upon His head, He was forced to carry a cross across the hilly streets of Jerusalem and then He was nailed to it, He was stripped of His clothes and displayed on a cross in front of His mother, and then He slowly suffered asphyxiation as He hung on the cross. At the height of His suffering and Passion He looked down at the jeering throng and said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.
When we discover forgiveness we fully surrender and discover God’s grace and it can only come from God. Being broken leads us there. Forgive those who have wronged you. Remember forgiveness is about you more than them…
2 Cor. 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
January 8, 2015 – Click here to listen