Unbroken (Yet, Broken)

Last evening Karen and I were able to go on a date to see the new movie "Unbroken" and reflect on the story of Louie.  I'll keep this on a first name basis due to to the influence that anyone could possibly have that in connection with the impact that a life can have on another when they act as Louie did. 

The quote that his brother used, "If you can make it, you can take it", is pronounced and lasting.  He endured hardship both physical, mental, and spiritual.  I was reminded that others are watching.  When Louie hoisted the plank above his beaten and decimated body the Japanese commanding officer became broken rather than Louie.  Although Louie was in return beaten severely, he took it and internalized the outcome.  He was living out the instructions that his commanding officer on the American side had instilled in him.  Those instructions were to stay alive.

To beat the Japanese was not to kill them but it was live to the end of the war and know that you were alive to tell the story.  So much to apply here in that we are to live to tell our story and be there to give testimony to the outcome of how we have overcome or given in to our enemy.  My enemy is not the Japanese but the advocary of Jesus, Satan.  Even if I die living I am promised to not die.  When the American plane flew over the last cleansing in the movie, the signal was given that the prisoners had been seen and that the war was over.  These men were not fighting with weapons buth with their hearts that spilled out in desporation over their bodies.  They were washing clean to die, walking into the river to be washed away, but were given recognition and were free since the war is over. 

I also watched recently the series "Pacific" where one of the primary characters, Sledge Hammer, is embosed with the moral responsiblity of being a soldier by following his call of duty while interpreting this role from the perspective his faith in Jesus.  The portrayal is a conflict of interest where, as Bonhaffer phrases it in "The Cost of Discipleship", that this is cheap grace vs. grace.  To be obedient is to believe, to believe is to be obedient.  To live is to die and to die is to live.  The teeter-totter effect was clear in the interest of knowing what to do when faced with the outcry of variables that could not be drempt up in the worst nightmare because you are living and you never sleep because the nightmare is experienced when awake. 

I saw in Louie the ability to recover.  If you can take it you can make it.  In one scene it was his buddies or himself and they all had to punch him in the face ... hit me!  I have got to be there and be willing to suffer for what is singulary the most important story I can tell and that is to be devoted to Jesus with all that I am.