Unbroken

I’m sure many of you have seen the movie, Unbroken. If you haven’t seen it, you definitely should! It was very good. However, my one complaint is that the movie never explained how Louie Zamperini went from an incredibly broken, stubborn man, to an “unbroken” one.

As you may have guessed, the book is much, much better than the movie. It’s an incredible biography. But the best part about it is that in the book, there was a clear explanation of how Zamperini became Unbroken. As I was thinking about it, it’s funny that he first had to be completely broken before he could become “unbroken” by the grace of God. At the end of the movie, he was still very broken. But in the book, it explains that it was only after he encountered Christ that the LORD was able to make him truly whole again.

Broken bread

This past week, I’ve been reading the gospels and came across the feeding of the 4,000, and 5,000. And I had an epiphany. You know the first thing Jesus did in each of those accounts, after He gave thanks? He broke the bread (Matthew 15:29-39 and Matthew 14:13 – 21, respectively). He didn’t give out whole loaves. Rather, He was able to use and distribute the bread only after it was broken. It’s amazing that out of those broken, small pieces of bread, he was able to do so incredibly much.

I think this speaks volumes, and I sort of can’t believe I never saw it.

Western strength

I’m not sure if it’s specifically an American or Western thing, but it’s very ingrained in our culture to be strong and resilient. Those of us that are broken are pitied at best, and at worst are looked down upon. Why can’t we just suck it up? Our knee jerk response is to sing a fight song and keep marching. “I’ve got this” is our mantra.

Now I am definitely one that would say we must be resilient and persistent. It’s important that we try, and then try again. Jesus talks about that characteristic specifically in the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8). However, the LORD tends to use those of us that recognize our own brokenness and trust Him to put us all together again. He uses the broken for His glory, and our own good.

The Strong

Again, there is much to be said about being strong. But the older I get, the more I realize I have no real strength on my own. Not anything of real worth or eternal value, anyway. What’s amazing is that God’s grace allows for so many people who reject His gift of salvation to achieve tremendous things. However, none of it truly satisfies. It really is like chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:14). I’ve read about many people who achieve their lifelong dreams. But when they finally get what they’ve been working for, they are left disappointed, confused, and frustrated.

For some reason, I always remember Walter Payton. I lived in Chicago when the Bears won the Super Bowl back in 1986 (forever ago). And if you’re wondering, yes, I know the entire Super Bowl Shuffle, thank you very much! But before he passed away, someone interviewed him about how he felt after the Bears finally won the Super Bowl. He said that after all of the celebrations right after the game, he went back to his locker and thought to himself, “So that’s it? Now what?”

We were made to do incredible things, even more than we can imagine! But it’s not about us. It’s about the LORD.

Synergy in nature

What’s crazy is that you can even find the value of brokenness in nature. I had to take an elective in college, and I decided on a Civil Engineering intro course. Of course, at the end of the semester, you had to build a bridge. At the time, my partner and I, who was also studying Chemical Engineering, came to the conclusion we had way bigger fish to fry with our other classes, so we weren’t going to spend a ton of time on this bridge. We bought the biggest pieces of balsa wood we could find, and built that bridge in no time. We figured we’ll spend the money on larger pieces and it would hold up fine!

Much to our consternation, our bridge ended up holding the least amount of weight (praise God we did not become Civil Engineers). You know the bridges that held up massive amounts of weight? The ones with several pieces of very thin balsa wood all glued together. There was synergy in those thin, broken pieces of wood coming together as one. They had the same dimensions as our big piece of wood, but were much, much stronger.

Broken saints

I hope we can find inspiration in the broken saints that came before us. Let us pray we also come broken to God, with repentant hearts, ready and willing to be used by Him.

I know for so many of us, the LORD has given us situations that don’t just feel like they’re breaking us, but shattering us into a million pieces. LORD, give us the strength to trust You in the difficulties and give you praise in each and every circumstance (1 Thessalonians 5:16 – 18), despite the fact we may not understand or see.

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