Louis Zamperini
Louis Zamperini is best known for Laura Hillenbrand's book "Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption".
Zamperini's life started out hard. Born to Italian immigrants in New York, his family moved to Torrance, California when Louis was a toddler. At the time Louie knew no English, making him the perfect target for bullies.
With a string of luck, Louie's older brother Pete got him into running. He set tons of records, and eventually made his way to the 1936 Berlin Olympics in the 5,000 meters at age 19, being the youngest U.S. qualifier for that event.
While training for the 1940 Olympics, WWII broke out and Louie became a second lieutenant. Deployed as a bombardier, their plane was badly damaged and crashed. Louie and his friend Russell Allen Phillips survived in an inflated raft for 47 days, with no food, and occasional rain water.
Louie and Phil landed on the Marshall Islands, and were taken prisoner by the Japanese. They remained prisoners for two years, until the end of the war.
For a while after the war, Louie became a war hero. Soon after, however, memories of his life in captivity continued to haunt him until he was brought to Christ through one of Billy Graham's sermons.
Louie dedicated his life to Christ, became a motivational speaker, and began helping troubled youth.
“I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you're not hurting the person you hate, you're hurting yourself. It's a healing, actually, it's a real healing...forgiveness.”
“The Bible speaks of the Word of God as added. Sometimes it's planted by the wayside, and nothing grows there. Sometimes it's sown among the thorns and represents the person who makes the decision an then goes back to his old life of bars and chasing women or whatever. A third seed is sown among the rocks. There's sand and dirt between the rocks, and when it rains you'll see a stalk of green coming up. But on the first day with sunshine it wilts because there is no room for roots.The fourth seed is planted on fertile soil, and finally it takes hold and has a chance to grow and live. That's what happened to me.”
“God has given me so much. He expects so much out of me.”
“All I want to tell young people is that you're not going to be anything in life unless you learn to commit to a goal. You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.”
“The one who forgives never brings up the past to that person's face. When you forgive, it's like it never happened. True forgiveness is complete and total.”
“The great commandment is that we preach the gospel to every creature, but neither God nor the Bible says anything about forcing it down people's throats.”
“I've always been called Lucky Louie. It's no mystery why.”
“It was all in His hands now - as it had always been.”
“God knew my needs and took care accordingly.”
“(after asking Christ into his heart) I waited. And then, true to His promise, He came into my heart and my life. The moment was more than remarkable; it was the most realistic experience I'd ever had. I'm not sure what I expected; perhaps my life or my sins or a great white light would flash before my eyes; perhaps I'd feel a shock like being hit by a bolt of lightning. Instead, I felt no tremendous sensation, just a weightlessness and an enveloping calm that let me know that Christ had come into my heart.”
“I was raised to face any challenge.”
“All I knew was that hate was so deadly as any poison and did no one any good. You had to control and eliminate it, if you could.”
“(On surviving on the raft for 47 days) We had truly made it on a wing and prayer.”
“Yet a part of you still believes you can fight and survive no matter what your mind knows. It's not so strange. Where there's still life, there's still hope. What happens is up to God.”
“I'd made it this far and refused to give up because all my life I had always finished the race.”
“To live, a man needs food, water, and a sharp mind.”
“Someone who doesn't make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn't act like he'd just become king of the world, either. Athletes in my day were simply humble in our victory.I believe we were more mature then...Maybe it's because the media puts so much pressure on athletes; maybe it's also the money. In my day we competed for the love of the sport...In my day we patted the guy who beat us on the back, wished him well, and that was it.”
“The race film had confirmed a dead heat. That was great. But even better, most of the New York press finally learned to spell my name correctly.”
“The world, we'd discovered, doesn't love you like your family loves you.”