Broken

"God reminded His people, 'These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite (broken) in spirit, and who tremble at my word." Isaiah 66:2

Both the book and the movie titled "Unbroken" were massive hits with the public. They tell of the remarkable story of Louie Zamperini, the World War 2 flyer captured by the Japanese, and who, despite terrible tortures by his captors, remained unbroken in his resistance to their brutality. Yet the movie never really goes beyond the story of his resistance. It doesn't detail his life after he was freed from the prisoner camp he was held in. It doesn't tell of his terrible struggles with alcohol, depression, anger, and abuse towards his wife. It doesn't tell of the continual downward spiral of his life until one night, he attended a Billy Graham crusade and there had a life transforming encounter with His Savior, Jesus Christ.

The result of this encounter was that he was delivered of his addiction to alcohol, cigarettes, and even more, of his deep seated anger and violence towards his wife and loved ones, and especially, his hatred towards his former captors. Captors, especially the one who had been his chief tormentor, that he sought to seek out, forgive, and find reconciliation with. We tend to celebrate his unbroken will, but we miss, or just ignore, the cost to him and those who loved him, of that unbroken will. That unbroken will was destroying his life. It was not until that night at the crusade, where he was broken before Christ, that real victory and freedom came to Him. It took a number of years before he came to that place. How long will it take us?

Where are the places in our hearts where we are unbroken before Him? Are we unbroken as concerns the abuses and wounds of our past, filled with anger and bitterness over them? Are we unbroken in our attitudes towards authority in any form, even God's? Are we unbroken in our refusal to love those in our lives who to us are unlovable? Are we simply unbroken in our refusal to surrender our will to His? All of these and more can form hard and unbroken places and attitudes before Him and all those around us. They cripple us emotionally and spiritually, and at times, even physically. Where are we unbroken? Will we remain so?

Isaiah 66 says that His favor is upon the humble and broken, and even more, who tremble at His word. The unbroken do not tremble at His word. Nor do they fear Him. Such heart attitudes will never bring forth His favor upon us. Yes, His love is unchanging, but His favor is not. Do we have any concept of what we are missing when we walk through this life lacking the fullness of His favor? We cannot earn that favor, but neither can we receive it when we willingly walk against His light, and hold to those things that we know, no matter how we justify them, are sins against His love and life.

The camp that held Louie Zamperini was liberated in 1945, but he didn't find freedom until that night in 1952, when, broken before Christ, he found it in the forgiving, freeing grace of the Lord. He had left the prison camp physically, but his mind and spirit still dwelt in a cell he'd never be able to free himself from. At the cross, the unbroken was now broken.

Leonard Ravenhill said, "At all costs, Satan tried to divert Christ from the cross." Louie Zamperini resisted all of his wife's invitations to attend the crusade with her, but finally, against his wishes, gave in. There, at His cross, despite all the enemy's attempts to divert him from it, he was broken. Where is the devil succeeding in diverting you from that same cross? Where do you resist brokenness in Him? Christ's Body was broken for us. Where must we be broken for and in Him?

Blessings,

Pastor O