John 20:31 - but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
I finished a great true story of bravery, determination and life. The book is called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It's about Louis Lamperini--Louie--a 1936 Olympic distance miler and a World War II Air Force veteran. The distance miler alone should have been an indication of how he would live his life!!
Louie was an incorrigible child, master of thievery in his neighborhood in California. His brother steered him out of what might have been a disastrous life of crime by emphasizing his strong ability to run--fast. It became his passion. He ran in the 1936 Olympics and although he didn’t win, he was headed in the right direction...until World War II broke out.
He was drafted into the Air Force and assigned to a mission with a group of men. The plane in which he was a bombardier was shot down over the Pacific Ocean, three men survived the crash and were afloat for 47 days in two, then one raft. Two survived...and were taken captive by the Japanese and carted off to several prison camps where they were tortured, brutally tortured, for two years.
Still Louie survived. There was a determination in this man, like the determination he had as an incorrigible child and distance miler. He was determined to survive.
I was going to write mainly about an occurrence that changed his life, but chose not to go that route. Instead, this is what I saw happen:
Louie had spunk. As an incorrigible child and as a distance miler he had that determination. As I was reading I saw it from a different perspective, but couldn’t attest to any of it early on: God had given him strength beyond the normal human strength, and determination. His hand seemed to be on Louie even in the midst of all the dreadful things that happened to him during the war. Bravery, wisdom, perseverance. Only minor injuries and the ability to help others in the face of disaster...a born leader.
There were many things that happened during their time in the raft: he escaped a mass of tangled cords when the aircraft crashed; he didn’t know how he had gotten free...he was underwater and nearly unconscious, but he escaped. He had taken a physiology class on how to keep the brain active...they put it into action so they would not go insane. He had the ability to stay focused on survival, not doom. He had always been a daredevil, adding to the strength. Hope displaced fear and each little success kept them going.
They prayed a lot in the rafts; one of the other survivors relied on his faith in God. This and another clue is what intrigued me so: they seemed to have been met with Divine intervention three times after they prayed. Their raft was riddled with bullets a few times but they personally were never hit, nor eaten by sharks when they slipped under the rafts for protection. A bomb that was dropped near them did not explode. Who can explain surviving these incidences?
Then came the POW camp ordeal. Louie was singled out by the main prison guard because of his Olympic status. He was daily beaten, punched, kicked, prodded, whipped about the face by this guard’s belt. He and the other prisoners lost half their body weight, we're riddled with disease and were given dirty water and seaweed for meals. No protein, apart from bugs they might catch. Sometimes the water was contaminated with lavatory waste.
The war was over and they went home. Louie picked up his life, such as it was. He maintained a seemingly normal life. He married a wonderful woman. Then an incident completely changed him. It caused reminders of the war to surface and he nose dived into despair, alcohol, cigarettes. He experienced nightmares every night of the torture he endured at the hand of the prison guard. His wife threatened to leave him because he was no longer easy to live with, her life possibly in danger.
But God... Here I’m thinking, where is this book going to take us? I know he had to escape to tell the story. I saw a picture in the back of the book of an aging Louie carrying a torch. There had to be a happy ending.
There came an encounter with God...at a Billy Graham crusade! This was back in the 50’s when Billy was young and energetic. He was in the town where Louie lived and his wife pleaded with him to go. He went, twice. The first time only brought resistance. The second time she asked him to go, he continued his resistance with the same determination and steadfastness that kept him alive in Japan. But God...as Louie was about to storm out of the tent, something, or Someone, grabbed him, stopped him and turned him right toward the altar, where Louie gave his life to Christ.
If it were not for that occurrence, Louie’s story would have been one of total anguish, defeat, depression. I felt all along as I read that something had to happen of consequence. The ending was good because out of the very depths of despair and darkness that Louie had entered into, he turned to the light of Christ. His life turned around; he learned forgiveness, a very important thing that enabled him to live the rest of his life victorious...and able to tell his story...and a life filled with doing for the Lord, sharing his story with church groups, wherever he could.
When this Billy Graham part of the book was revealed, it wrapped the whole book into a nice tight bow, bringing the book together perfectly. God was behind Louie from his incorrigible boyhood where he learned skills that would transform him as a young man and allow him to survive torturous years. God was with him in the raft and in the prisoner of war camp. Although for a time Louie was strong in his own power, God needed to weaken him to finish the plan He had for Louie’s life. sometimes this is what it takes for our eyes to be truly opened. When things are going well in life, we feel we don't need God's help. When the roof caves in, we plead with Him for help. Every day we should be asking for His guidance and strength.
All for God’s glory. The power of God at work...when we don’t recognize it, when we don’t recognize him. When we go through torturous times ourselves and perhaps come to our lowest point, He is there to step in and ask, “Are you ready now to receive Me to receive life?”
John 10:10 - The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
I finished a great true story of bravery, determination and life. The book is called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It's about Louis Lamperini--Louie--a 1936 Olympic distance miler and a World War II Air Force veteran. The distance miler alone should have been an indication of how he would live his life!!
Louie was an incorrigible child, master of thievery in his neighborhood in California. His brother steered him out of what might have been a disastrous life of crime by emphasizing his strong ability to run--fast. It became his passion. He ran in the 1936 Olympics and although he didn’t win, he was headed in the right direction...until World War II broke out.
He was drafted into the Air Force and assigned to a mission with a group of men. The plane in which he was a bombardier was shot down over the Pacific Ocean, three men survived the crash and were afloat for 47 days in two, then one raft. Two survived...and were taken captive by the Japanese and carted off to several prison camps where they were tortured, brutally tortured, for two years.
Still Louie survived. There was a determination in this man, like the determination he had as an incorrigible child and distance miler. He was determined to survive.
I was going to write mainly about an occurrence that changed his life, but chose not to go that route. Instead, this is what I saw happen:
Louie had spunk. As an incorrigible child and as a distance miler he had that determination. As I was reading I saw it from a different perspective, but couldn’t attest to any of it early on: God had given him strength beyond the normal human strength, and determination. His hand seemed to be on Louie even in the midst of all the dreadful things that happened to him during the war. Bravery, wisdom, perseverance. Only minor injuries and the ability to help others in the face of disaster...a born leader.
There were many things that happened during their time in the raft: he escaped a mass of tangled cords when the aircraft crashed; he didn’t know how he had gotten free...he was underwater and nearly unconscious, but he escaped. He had taken a physiology class on how to keep the brain active...they put it into action so they would not go insane. He had the ability to stay focused on survival, not doom. He had always been a daredevil, adding to the strength. Hope displaced fear and each little success kept them going.
They prayed a lot in the rafts; one of the other survivors relied on his faith in God. This and another clue is what intrigued me so: they seemed to have been met with Divine intervention three times after they prayed. Their raft was riddled with bullets a few times but they personally were never hit, nor eaten by sharks when they slipped under the rafts for protection. A bomb that was dropped near them did not explode. Who can explain surviving these incidences?
Then came the POW camp ordeal. Louie was singled out by the main prison guard because of his Olympic status. He was daily beaten, punched, kicked, prodded, whipped about the face by this guard’s belt. He and the other prisoners lost half their body weight, we're riddled with disease and were given dirty water and seaweed for meals. No protein, apart from bugs they might catch. Sometimes the water was contaminated with lavatory waste.
The war was over and they went home. Louie picked up his life, such as it was. He maintained a seemingly normal life. He married a wonderful woman. Then an incident completely changed him. It caused reminders of the war to surface and he nose dived into despair, alcohol, cigarettes. He experienced nightmares every night of the torture he endured at the hand of the prison guard. His wife threatened to leave him because he was no longer easy to live with, her life possibly in danger.
But God... Here I’m thinking, where is this book going to take us? I know he had to escape to tell the story. I saw a picture in the back of the book of an aging Louie carrying a torch. There had to be a happy ending.
There came an encounter with God...at a Billy Graham crusade! This was back in the 50’s when Billy was young and energetic. He was in the town where Louie lived and his wife pleaded with him to go. He went, twice. The first time only brought resistance. The second time she asked him to go, he continued his resistance with the same determination and steadfastness that kept him alive in Japan. But God...as Louie was about to storm out of the tent, something, or Someone, grabbed him, stopped him and turned him right toward the altar, where Louie gave his life to Christ.
If it were not for that occurrence, Louie’s story would have been one of total anguish, defeat, depression. I felt all along as I read that something had to happen of consequence. The ending was good because out of the very depths of despair and darkness that Louie had entered into, he turned to the light of Christ. His life turned around; he learned forgiveness, a very important thing that enabled him to live the rest of his life victorious...and able to tell his story...and a life filled with doing for the Lord, sharing his story with church groups, wherever he could.
When this Billy Graham part of the book was revealed, it wrapped the whole book into a nice tight bow, bringing the book together perfectly. God was behind Louie from his incorrigible boyhood where he learned skills that would transform him as a young man and allow him to survive torturous years. God was with him in the raft and in the prisoner of war camp. Although for a time Louie was strong in his own power, God needed to weaken him to finish the plan He had for Louie’s life. sometimes this is what it takes for our eyes to be truly opened. When things are going well in life, we feel we don't need God's help. When the roof caves in, we plead with Him for help. Every day we should be asking for His guidance and strength.
All for God’s glory. The power of God at work...when we don’t recognize it, when we don’t recognize him. When we go through torturous times ourselves and perhaps come to our lowest point, He is there to step in and ask, “Are you ready now to receive Me to receive life?”
John 10:10 - The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
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