On occasion I like to read the real life stories of war heroes. The story of Louis Zamperini is no exception. My first exposure to his story was first through the movie Unbroken and then through my reading of the book by the same name. Zamperini’s story is one of survival, resilience, and redemption. Louis spends most of his childhood being a mischievous teenager who then turns his behavior into becoming an Olympic distance runner. He later becomes an airman in WWII, survives a crash landing of his bomber in the Pacific Ocean, spent 47 days on a life raft that drifted over 2000 miles, and then was a prisoner of war for over two years. Through all of this Louis stayed focused on surviving and lived to be 97 when he passed away in July of 2014. However the title Unbroken is slightly misleading. When Louis returned from the war he was a broken man with lots of anger and bitterness especially towards his captors. His life began to spiral out of control until he responded to a Gospel message at a tent meeting by known other than Billy Graham. Louis life began to radically change and he became a man truly broken by God’s grace, but unbroken by the mistreatment of his captors. He would actually attempt to contact many of his captors to share his new-found message of forgiveness. While Louis life is a testament of perseverance, strength, and toughness he was truly not unbroken until he was broken by God’s grace and forgiveness.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2(NIV)