What finally broke Louis Zamperini

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, the riveting life story of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, is easily one of the best books I’ve read… ever. As I was reflecting on the journey of this remarkable man, I was moved to tears by the wondrous power of the Holy Spirit to change a heart.

Louis was once a man “unbroken,” but not anymore:

• The bullies he faced in high school in the 1920′s couldn’t break him.
• The injustice done to him by other runners as he raced to beat records didn’t break him.
• The severe homesickness that accompanied his military service couldn’t break him.
• His plane crash into the Pacific on May 27, 1943 didn’t break him.
• 47 days drifting on a raft in the ocean couldn’t break him.
• The sharks that attacked him from the water while the Japanese strafed his raft from the sky didn’t break him.
• Burying his close friend and fellow soldier at sea couldn’t break him.
• A typhoon that nearly swamped his raft didn’t break him.
• His Japanese captors who taunted and tortured and nearly starved him for two and a half years couldn’t break him.
• The mental agonies stirred up by the tortures of “The Bird” didn’t break him.
• But in September 1949, at a Billy Graham crusade, the gospel broke him.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.