Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Lessons from Louie1940 he trained harder than ever. He broke college records and came within less than a second of breaking the mile world record. He was

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Lessons from LouiegoingDEEP

Exodus 32:9-14, 31; Hebrews 7:23-28

Intercession

dwel l ingPOINT: Romans 8 :28

It was 1931, the Depression was in full swing, unemployment was 25%. Louie wasfourteen years old, and his childish pranks were now becoming dangerous. Thepolice were always at the Zamperini house. If there was any hope for Louie’s future,it was in making the best of his high school education. But he even jeopardized that.

It all started when Louie heard someone say that any key has a one in fifty chanceof opening any lock. He began furiously trying out keys on doors across town.Finally, it worked––his house key opened the back door to the high schoolgymnasium. During that basketball season, he snuck kids into games so theycould avoid paying the ten cent admission. Someone eventually found out andthe principal punished Louie by banning him from any sports or social activitiesfor one year. Louie could’ve cared less, but his older brother, Pete, knew this wasterrible for Louie and went straight to the principal:

He told the principal that Louie craved attention but had never won it in theform of praise, so he sought it in the form of punishment. If Louie wererecognized for doing something right, Pete argued, he’d turn his life around.He asked the principal to allow Louie to join a sport. When the principalbalked, Pete asked him if he could live with allowing Louie to fail. It was acheeky thing for a sixteen year old to say to his principal....

The principal agreed, and sixteen year old Pete Zamperini, with one bold act,changed the course of his little brother’s life.

In Exodus, we see Moses boldly intercede on behalf of the Israelites. We don’tknow why God allowed Moses to talk with him so bluntly. What we do know isthat Moses put himself at risk for the sake of others, and there is no greater lovethan that (John 15:13).

In Hebrews 7 we learn that Jesus continually intercedes on our behalf. We messup, we lose faith, we serve false idols, and Jesus graciously pleads with the Fatherto give us one more chance. Where would we be without His intercession?

For whose sake can you intercede? If you don’t speak, who will? As Salt andLight, we must be willing to speak up for the world’s voiceless victims. Jesuspleads mercy for us. We need to follow His example and plead mercy for others.

(Portions of this week of Dwell taken from Hillenbrand, Laura. Unbroken. New York: Random House, 2010.)

Monday, January 23, 2012


1 Samuel 16:1-13

Restless Youth

dwel l ingPOINT: Romans 8 :28 JWW

Louie Zamperini, born in 1917 and still alive and well at almost 95 years of age,has led an astonishing life. A standout at the 1936 Olympics, an officer duringWorld War II, he’s had a stadium named after him, and crowds have filledstadiums to listen to him speak. But judging from his childhood, no one would’vethought Louie would amount to much of anything.

When he was two, Louie contracted a very serious case of pneumonia. His lungswere badly damaged, and the doctor recommended Louie’s family move to a dryclimate. Even though the family was poor, they moved from New York to Torrance,California. They weren’t welcomed with open arms. Locals actually tried to preventthis Italian family from moving into their town. Being Italian, hardly able to speakEnglish, Louie was a target for bullies. It didn’t help that he was small for his age,and his lungs were so damaged that every girl in town could beat him in a footrace.

Yet in spite of all this, or maybe because of it, Louie was a wild child. He startedsmoking when he was five, picking up cigarette butts on the way to school. Hedrank for the first time when he was eight. He regularly stole food right out ofpeople’s kitchens. The police were always after him, particularly after he peltedone of them with rotten tomatoes. When a teacher made Louie stand in thecorner, he deflated her car tires with toothpicks.

Louie was a scrawny kid with poor health and poor behavior, but he had a strongspirit. When he was hungry, he stole food. Bored, he created fun. Bullied, helearned how to fight. He didn’t do things the right way, of course, but he didn’ttake problems lying down. Even though most of his community thought this Italiantroublemaker would amount to nothing, Louie eventually proved them wrong.

David was so overlooked that his father didn’t even consider him a possible candidateto be king. His brothers told him to mind his own business on the battlefield (1 Samuel17:28-51), yet it was David’s audacity that put him face to face with Goliath. Isthere a young person in your life that’s been labeled a lost cause? God has aplan for him. All his energy and willfulness can be used for good. Remember notto judge based on outward appearances; God looks at a person’s heart.


Thursday, January 26, 2012


Proverbs 13:12; Psalm 42

Broken Dreams


Louie began training like mad. He ran his entire paper route every morning, heran to school and to the beach. He stopped drinking and smoking. To strengthenhis lungs, he’d go to the public pool, grab the drain plug at the bottom and floatthere. Eventually, he could hold his breath for over three and a half minutes.

His training was paying off. He beat his brother Pete’s Torrance High mile recordof 5:06. Three weeks later he clocked in at 4:50, setting a state record. Twomonths later he’d got his mile down to 4:42. Stories about Louie in the local papersold so many copies that the Torrance Herald insured his legs for $50,000.

After graduating high school, he qualified for the 1936 Berlin Olympics. At hisage, he wasn’t expected to win at the Olympics. It was understood that a runner ofhis caliber would peak in his twenties. But Louie put on a great show nonetheless.In the 5000 meter he clocked the fastest last lap in history, prompting Hitler toask to see “the boy with the fast finish.”

Louie knew the 1940 Olympics would be his time to shine. Winning a goldmedal wasn’t just a possibility, but a probability. In the four years leading up to1940 he trained harder than ever. He broke college records and came withinless than a second of breaking the mile world record. He was one of the greatestrunners the world had ever seen.

But in April 1940, just months before they were to start, the Olympics werecancelled. Germany and Japan had launched attacks across Europe and Asia.World War II began.

Louie was heartbroken. He became sick with lung inflammation and startedlosing races. He dropped out of college a few credits short of his degree. Hisdreams were shattered.

When dreams are broken, we realize we are just men, just women––frail in theface of overwhelming circumstances. But that is not the end of the story. We bringour sorrow to God, and when our sorrow is so great we can’t speak, the Spiritgraciously speaks for us (Romans 8: 26). And when we feel we can’t rise up for ourgrief is like an unbearable weight, the eternal hope––the hope that has inspiredChristians across the centuries––lifts us up: God will make all things good. If not inthis present life, then in an age to come. In His perfect time, all things will be good.


Wednesday, January 25, 2012


Luke 15:11-32; Romans 1:28-32

Prodigal


During Louie’s first track practice, the team had a race. Louie came in dead last. Heheard people laughing at him and was so embarrassed he ran off the field and hidunder the bleachers. The coach said “that kid belonged anywhere but in a footrace.”

From that day on, Pete was all over Louie....Pete herded him out to train every dayand rode his bicycle behind him, whacking him with a stick. Louie dragged his feet,belly-ached, and quit at the first sign of fatigue. Pete made him get up and keepgoing. Louie started winning. At the season’s end, he became the first Torrance kidto make the All City Finals....Pete had been right about Louie’s talent. But to Louie,training felt like one more constraint. At night he listened to the whistles of passingtrains, and one day in the summer of ’32, he couldn’t bear it any longer.

He rounded up a friend, and together they hitchhiked to Los Angeles...The next daythey jumped a train....The trip was a nightmare...they were discovered by the railroaddetective, who forced them to jump from the moving train at gunpoint. After severaldays of walking, getting chased out of orchards and grocery stores where they triedto steal food, they wound up sitting on the ground in a railyard, filthy, bruised,sunburned, and wet, sharing a stolen can of beans. A train rattled past. Louie lookedup. “I saw...beautiful white tablecloths and crystal on the tables, and food, peoplelaughing and enjoying themselves and eating,” he said later. “And [I was] sittinghere shivering, eating a miserable can of beans.”...He stood up and headed home.

When Louie walked into his house, Louise [his mother] threw her arms around him,inspected him for injuries, led him to the kitchen, and gave him a cookie....Afterdinner, Louie went upstairs, dropped into bed, and whispered his surrender to Pete.

Louie learned that living life by his own set of rules left him unhappy and unfulfilled.Being home under his parents’ rules and his brother’s training regiment was betterthan a life of complete freedom.

In the same way, we will never feel at peace if we spend our lives satisfying our sinfuldesires. The best way for you and me to live is under the guidance of the eternal wisdomof the Bible and under the wise influence of the Holy Spirit. But God is gracious––Heknows in our flawed state we can’t see this truth right away. That’s why he watchesthe horizon, patiently waiting for us to return home. That’s why He celebrates soextravagantly when we finally do. We are His children; He’s been waiting for us.


Saturday, January 28, 2012


Ephesians 6:10-18

The Crash


One terrible, tumbling second passed, then another. An instant before the planestruck the water, Louie’s mind throbbed with a single, final thought: Nobody’s goingto live through this.

For Louie, there were only jagged, soundless sensations: his body catapulted forward,the plane breaking open, something wrapping itself around him, the cold slap of water,and then its weight over him. [His plane]...stabbed into the ocean and blew apart.

....Louie was still ensnared in the plane, writhing in the wires. He looked up and saw abody, drifting passively. The plane coursed down, and the world fled away above.Louie felt his ears pop....Darkness enfolded him, and the water pressure bore in withgreater intensity. He struggled uselessly. He thought: hopeless.

He felt a sudden, excruciating bolt of pain in his forehead. There was an oncomingstupor, a fading, as he tore at the wires and clenched his throat against the need tobreathe. He had the soft realization that this was the last of everything. He passed out.

He woke in total darkness. He thought: This is death....He was floating inside thefuselage, which was bearing him toward the ocean floor, some seventeen hundredfeet down. He could see nothing....he was now gulping reflexively, swallowing saltwater....He was drowning....He swam into the window, put his feet on the frame,and pushed off....He burst into dazzling daylight. He gasped in a breath andimmediately vomited up the salt water and fuel he had swallowed. He had survived.

This was only the beginning of Louie’s battle to survive. He’ll spend weeks floating ona raft in the Pacific, fighting all that nature throws at him. But he’s prepared––mentally,he knows what to do. His survival courses have taught him. Physically, he’s in the bestshape of his life. He’s been running every day, and his mile time is as good as it waswhen he was in college.

Are you prepared for spiritual survival? Satan would love to bring your spiritual lifecrashing down. He’d love to ruin your reputation, enslave you to some sin, or cause youto lose joy and hope. Don’t let it happen! When the attack comes, be prepared. ReadScripture every day and memorize as much as possible. Pray constantly––keep the linesof communication with God open. Confess sin quickly, so you won’t begin to feeldisconnected from God and prone to more sin. And go to church––be with God’s people.


Friday, January 27, 2012


Matthew 6:25-34

Fear


After dropping out of college, Louie got a job as a welder at Lockheed Air Corporation.For all his daredevil behavior, Louie didn’t like to fly. But seeing the impressivemachines day after day he felt a pull. So he signed up for the Army Air Corps.

In the Air Corps, Louie’s fear of flying was justified. Over the course of the war, intraining exercises alone, there were 52,651 plane accidents and 14,903fatalities. Losing 500 or more airmen per month during training was common.

Once Louie started combat missions, the risks were even worse. After only twomonths stationed in Hawaii, a quarter of the men in Louie’s barracks had beenkilled. He lost friends regularly. And his crew had several scares. In their firstmission, they almost ran out of fuel, both engines dying literally seconds after theylanded. During another mission, their plane was attacked. One airman died,another was wounded. They barely made it back to base. As they assessed thedamage they found 594 bullet holes had ripped through their bomber.

Even if they survived a crash, sharks were a very real threat, often appearingminutes after a plane crashed. There was also little chance of rescue, and a risk ofbeing captured by Japanese. Like all airmen, Louie was quietly fearful.

What worries you? We have a clear command from Jesus in Matthew 6: stop worrying.Let go of your anxiety. We have no knowledge of the future and it’s foolish for us to fretabout it. This doesn’t mean we don’t prepare for the future. C.S. Lewis said, “Theduty of planning the morrow’s work is today’s duty.”

Jesus isn’t telling us to throw all cares to the wind. He’s saying trust in God, and focus ontoday’s duties. And that’s just what Louie did. He didn’t stew in his fears; he prepared forthem. He took courses on island survival and wound care. He cut a metal slab andinstalled it in his section of the plane to protect him from bullets. He took a course with anelderly Hawaiian man who shared centuries old tips on fighting off sharks. Rather thanletting fear of what could happen paralyze him, Louie actively prepared for survival.

No ministry or church has been built, no goal accomplished, without preparationand hard work. But in preparing for the future, we have to be careful not to worryabout the future. We can’t let our imaginations run wild with anxious thoughts.God is in control, despite whatever chaos may be around us. Trust Him.


Documents

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Lessons from Louie1940 he trained harder than ever. He broke college records and came within less than a second of breaking the mile world record. He was