On Christmas Day I watched the movie Unbroken about the Olympic runner Louie Zamperini who survived a plane crash, over thirty days in the Pacific in a life boat, and incarceration and torture in four Japanese POW camps. The movie ends with Louie's loving reunion at stateside with his parents and siblings after liberation.
But the story doesn't end there. Louie, his Olympic hopes destroyed by injuries in the POW camp, cannot escape the nightmares of his tormentors. He turns to drink and becomes violent including attempting to strangle his young wife who was pregnant. But God had a plan.
After extreme badgering of his wife, Louie attended two Billy Graham services where Dr. Graham preached, "What God asks of men is faith. His invisibility is the test of that faith. To know who sees him, God makes himself unseen." Through Louie's waves of anger and desperation to leave the service, God then spoke to Louie. "A memory long beaten back, the memory from which he had run the evening before, was upon him."...."He was a body on a raft, dying of thirst. He felt words whisper from his swollen lips. It was a promise thrown at heaven, a promise he had not kept, a promise he had allowed himself to forget until just this instant: If you will save me, I will serve your forever."
"And then standing under a circus tent on a clear night in downtown Los Angeles, Louie felt rain falling. It was the last flashback he would ever have. Louie let go of his wife and turned toward Graham. He felt supremely alive. He began walking. 'This is it,' said Graham. 'God has spoken to you. come in.".... "Louie felt profound peace. When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him." (Excerpts in quotes from Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand)
In my life I have experienced the viciousness of those who attempted to break my spirit. As a result of that experience, I was terrified that I would never regain my ability to feel the light that comes of sanity and love. But in a vision which was my reality, God showed me an Earth blanketed in snow, where there is no death, sickness, pain, or sin. The vision of purity was so beautiful, despite my fear for the loss of my sanity, I began my path of trust in God and forgiveness of those who attempted to break my spirit.
Louie experienced the supreme acts of evil to degrade a human to make them feel "worthless, broken, and forsaken.' He was on the brink of total destruction before God intervened and he emptied out his will not to his tormentors, but to God who is love. God lifted his burden and Louie was able to forgive his tormentors and feel at peace. It is sweet surrender.
