forgiven people forgive

about a month ago i traveled to georgia to visit mecca...i mean...north point. i'm kidding...kind of.

anyways, when i was down there, i went to brown's bridge community church which is a satellite of north point church. i've heard a lot about it and wanted to see what it was all about. and i'll be honest, i wanted to hear andy stanley speak...but he didn't. instead, pastor jeff henderson gave a powerful talk on forgiveness. his point was this: "forgiven people forgive." i don't know about you but that's pretty meaningful in my life.

in his sermon, henderson told the story of louie zamperini, an olympic runner and WWII prisoner of war. in short, zamperini represented the US in the 1936 olympics and later joined the US army air forces to serve in WWII. during the war, zamperini's plane crashed into the pacific ocean and he floated on a raft for 47 days with no food or water before being captured by the japanese military (that's not a typo, 47 days). not long after being captured and placed into a prisoner of war camp, zamperini was identified as a US olympian by the ruthless japanese

guard mutsuhiro wantanabe. on a daily basis, wantanabe sought out zamperini to beat him and torture him. at one point, wantanabe hit zamperini so hard with his belt buckle that it fractured zamperini's skull and left him unconscious. after the japanese surrendered and released all prisoners of war, zamperini came home to california. shortly thereafter, zamperini turned to alcohol to numb the painful memories of the war and to stop the horrendous nightmares he was having of wantanabe beating him. he eventually began plotting his return to japan to find wantanabe and kill him.

all of the rage, revenge, and hatred that had built up in zamperini was quickly replaced one night in a tent in LA. after the gentle persistence of his wife, he went to see a young man, billy graham, speak about the love of jesus christ. after accepting jesus, zamperini's life drastically changed and he forgave all of the japanese guards who treated him so cruelly, including wantanabe (it was actually his second night in the tent, read the book for the whole story). he began traveling around the country to speak on forgiveness and started a children's home for underprivileged kids. and then, in 1997, zamperini traveled to japan to meet wantanabe and forgive him in person (although wantanabe never showed up for the meeting).

to end his sermon, henderson brought 92 year old zamperini on stage to read a letter he had written wantanabe. in the letter, zamperini forgives wantanabe and invites him to become a christian. powerful.

what an amazing story of forgiveness. one that truly humbles me.

i just finished a book detailing zamperini's life, which is way better then this blog, called "unbroken" by laura hillenbrand. it's a powerful story of redemption, grace, reconciliation and forgiveness and it's a book that i highly recommend.

if you'd like to watch jeff henderson's sermon on forgiveness, you can find it here.