Unbroken: Where the Movie Left Off

This afternoon, I finished the book that inspired the film, Unbroken. I am amazed by how incredibly close the movie stays to Laura Hillenbrand's biography about Olympic athlete, WWII bombardier, plane crash survivor, and POW Louis Zamperini. 

Yet there's a story in the book that the movie just briefly covers. That of Zamperini's life after. After the plane crash. After 47 days lost at sea. After being imprisoned in a Japanese Prisoner of War camp. After enduring years of abuse and starvation. After.

Zamperini looked the same on the outside. But all that he had lived through had left him a fraction of the man he had been. He was alive. He had survived. More than once by some miracle. 

But he was a broken man. 

And it didn't take long for him to realize this. 

When he returned home, his family - who had been told that he was assumed dead - were elated. They stared at their son, at their brother with almost disbelieving eyes. All along, they had hoped that their highest hopes were not false. That somewhere in this world their Louis was living. His heart still beating, still racing to come home to them. God answered their prayers. 

A few months being back, back in a place where he never quite knew he would return to, but never lost hope to see again, Louis met a girl named Cynthia Applewhite. He would always say that from the minute he first saw her, he knew that he had to marry her. And he did. About three months later. 

Yet though thousands and thousands of miles away from his prison, his past, Zamperini was unable to let it go. Night after night, flashbacks terrorized him. He wrestled with the darkness, but it always won. Never was he able to go to sleep without being haunted by his life as a prisoner. 

To cope, he regularly drank himself to sleep to avoid another confrontation with his nightly appointment with the demons. But his drinking spilled over into this daily life, turning him into a monster. 

Every night, he wrestled with his unforgiveness towards "the Bird" - the sadistic guard that robbed him of his identity and his dignity, his belief in humanity, his levity, his passion for living. He envisioned himself strangling the Bird's neck, choking him until he gasped his final breath. Zamperini secretly began plotting to return to Japan one day - to murder this man who had robbed him of everything he had hoped to become. Of his dreams to be an Olympic medalist, a good husband, a functioning human being. 

His hate and rage consumed him. He wouldn't stop until he could have his vengeance. 

Meanwhile, "the Bird," his real name Mutsuhiro Watanabe, evaded authority to avoid being tried as a war criminal. He lived with strangers, doing odd jobs in exchange for board, concealing his identity from everyone. Hunted by the police, he could have no contact with his family, who were being watched and monitored at all hours. Somehow, he managed to visit them to let them know he was still alive. 

While there, detectives arrived at the family's doors. They were there to search for Watanabe, who hid in a closet as they looked for him. They didn't check it and he wasn't found. He promised his family that he would return again in exactly two years. Rumors soon began to circulate that he had committed suicide. He went off the radar. For a while. 

Stateside, Louis continued to spiral downward. He was disoriented and drunk most of the time, abusive and wrathful, bitter toward God. As Hillenbrand writes,  

“The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer. In seeking the Bird’s death to free himself, Louis had chained himself, once again, to his tyrant. During the war, the Bird had been unwilling to let go of Louie; after the war, Louie was unable to let go of the Bird.”

— p. 373

Louie and Cynthia had a little girl, but even the baby was not enough to quell the darkness in his heart, from the revenge and the alcoholism. Cynthia separated from him, deciding that divorce was the only answer to escape this nightmare she had unknowingly walked into when she said "I do." 

As they were apart, Cynthia heard of Billy Graham's tent crusades in Los Angeles. She begged Louis to go with her. They had tried everything else. He refused. But when she came back one night and told him that she no longer wanted to go through with the divorce, he started to reconsider his hesitancy to hear what this preacher from North Carolina had to say. He went. 

And he heard Billy Graham passionately encourage the audience to let God rescue them. Louis heard these words: "Here tonight, there's a drowning man, a drowning woman, a drowning boy, a drowning girl that is out lost in the sea of life." Those words resonated with him. 

But Louie's heart wasn't ready to let it all go. He grabbed Cynthia's hand and rushed out of the tent. 

Again, his wife pleaded, begging him to go back for another night during Graham's crusades. Annoyed by her persistence, he agreed to go one more time. 

This time, he heard the Reverend Billy Graham say something that finally got his attention and reminded him of who he had been:

"If you look into the heavens tonight, on this beautiful California night, I see the stars and can see the footprints of God...I think to myself, my Father, my Heavenly Father, hung them there with a flaming fingertip and holds there them with the power of His omnipotent hand, and He runs the whole universe, and He's not too busy running the whole universe to count the hairs on my head and see a sparrow when it falls, because God is interested in me."

Right then, Zamperini remembered his promise to God. Out on a life boat, ironically his life slipping away, Louis had prayed to God. Though never very religious, in that moment, surrounded by the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, he had time to contemplate God. Undistracted from anything else, he saw the sun rise and set each day, the stars start shining above him each night. Could it be that God was looking down on him from above? That even though no one else knew where he was, God did? The same God who created him and was now the only one who could save him. Louis prayed from that yellow raft, promising God that he would serve Him all the days of his life is He saved his life. If you will save me, he had prayed, I will serve You forever. 

Fast forward more than six years and Zamperini remembers that promise he had made. Here he was - alive! God hadn't allowed the ocean or the war or the Bird to take his life. Here he was - still breathing! God had saved his life, but he had not yet let God save his soul. That night, he surrendered and vowed to live the rest of his life serving Him. He committed his life to Jesus. 

That night, he came home, he felt like a different man. And that night, there was no nightmare. The first peaceful night since he returned home. 

Since he gave his life to Jesus that September day in 1949, Zamperini never had another nightmare for the rest of his life. Not one. 

Jesus had freed Louie from the brokenness that had threatened to make him a man that he didn't want to be - a man of rage and violence, of hate and resentment. Through Jesus Christ, he became unbroken, always crediting his strength and his joy in life to his faith in God. 

After that night, Zamperini went on to live a life of greatness - using his story not as an excuse to be broken, but as evidence of God's unfailing love for him and His faithfulness. Unshackled from the past, he went on to open the non-profit Victory Boys Camp. He shared his faith with the boys, encouraging them to overcome their challenges and become the men they could be.

He also traveled around the nation, telling his story in elementary school classrooms, stadiums, ships, churches.

Zamperini received numerous awards and honors for his service. Before five different Games, he was chosen to carry the Olympic torch. 

In his seventies, he learned how to skateboard and in his nineties, he still enjoyed skiing down mountains. This was and is Louis Zamperini - embracing all of life to the fullest. 

Toward the later years of his life, he found out the Watanabe was still alive. Through CBS, who had interviewed the Bird, Zamperini tried to make contact. Watanabe first agreed to see Louie, but later backed out of the deal. Louie sent him a letter telling him that he did forgive him and hoped that he would become a Christian. 

Louie never heard back from Watanabe, who died in 2003. 

Louis Zamperini's story amazes me. His strength and perseverance are truly remarkable and indescribable. What he endured and how he survived is absolutely astounding. 

Yet what captures my attention the most about his life story is that God reached out to him and told him to forgive. And through forgiving Watanabe, God extended his forgiveness to him. As Jesus taught, when we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us. And because of his decision to forgive and thus receive God's forgiveness, the rest of his life story was redeemed. And he became a man - though faced with so much brokenness - who lived unbroken. 

Without that decision to surrender, to let go of the rage, to trust God to do something inside his heart, to believe that something good could result from what he had experienced - without all of this - I know there would be no book to read, to movie to see, no story to tell. 

And what a loss that would have been. 

Thank you, Louis Zamperini, for choosing a different ending. For letting God change your heart so that His story that He wrote with your life can continue to inspire many. To live a life worth remembering and sharing.

"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."

-Louis Zamperini 

This blog post is dedicated to Louis Zamperini's life and legacy.

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7 Thoughts about Relationships for Twentysomethings

Here's my list of seven things all twenty-somethings should know to have healthy relationships that honor God: 

1.) If you don't have peace, don't continue. 

When you walk closely with God, He often leads and guides with either the presence or absence of peace. God's peace is not just a feeling, but rather a deep knowing in your heart. If you're walking close with God and you don't have peace about a relationship with someone, don't continue. Don't keep going in your own wisdom, just hoping for the best. We cannot rely on our own wisdom or perspective. God knows the heart of the person we are dating far more than we ever could. He knows who is right for us and He knows who is wrong for us. Trust Him to guide you. And don't insist on your own way. Which leads me to #2...

2.) God's will is always better than ours. Always.

I was dating a guy once and it was going really well. We had a lot in common and both seemed to have a similar love and passion for the Lord. One night as I was praying, I felt God asking me to surrender this relationship to Him and to pray for His will to be done, not my will. Shortly after, we called things off. I didn't want to see it end and I hadn't tried to make it happen, but when I surrendered it to God and gave it to Him, it dissolved. God told me to move on. It wasn't right. I didn't understand then, but months later I saw exactly why God didn't let it work out. And I am so grateful that it didn't! So grateful! God truly knows what is best for us even when we may not understand why things don't work out. His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. He knows better than we do. Always.

3.) Just because you don't end up getting married doesn't mean that it was meaningless. 

Another time, I was dating a guy who loved writing as much as I did. On our dates, we would often spend hours talking about our dreams to become authors and write books one day. It was so much fun being able to talk with him and inspire and encourage each other. We didn't get engaged or married. But you know what? He helped remind me of all the reasons why I love to write and why I'm a writer. God used him in a profound way to motivate me to write my book, which I started last summer and finished just four months later. I honestly don't think I would have done this if God had not let him into my life for that season. Just because things don't work out like a fairytale doesn't mean that it all was a waste. God will bring one person into our life to be our spouse, but He will use many other people to speak to us throughout our lifetimes and use them to shape us into the people He wants us to be. I often pray that just as God used this young man's presence in my life to encourage me, God used my presence in his life to encourage him. Knowing God, I'm sure He did.

4.) It's about more than a wedding. 

Growing up, I dreamed about marrying Prince Charming one day, wearing a princess gown, and having an amazing wedding. Okay, I still dream about that. But honestly, I've learned something. Marriage is more than a wedding or a story book ending. It's about God bringing two people together to bring Him more glory together than they would apart. As a little girl, I had such a simplified understanding of what it meant to be a bride and a wife. Now as a young woman, I can see through the examples of family, friends, and couples in my church that God brings a man and a woman together because He wants to do great things with both of them working as one for His glory. And if you ask me, that's a lot more awesome than just a big party on one day of your life. Weddings are cool, but marriage is even better. 

5.) "You are significant with or without a significant other."

One of my favorite authors, Shauna Niequist, always says this: "You are significant with or without a significant other." I couldn't agree more. So often people view singleness as something to get through, a season of life that they cannot wait to be over. But I believe that if we let it, God will use our singleness to teach us that our relationship with Him is the most important relationship we could ever have, and that any healthy romantic relationship we have with someone else will be because we are secure in our relationship with Him first. Before we share our life with someone else, we need to know who we are and Whose we are. Who has God created you to be? What does He want you to do with your life? Spend time asking those questions and you'll be more prepared to see who's going in that direction, too. Someone God just might be preparing to walk alongside you. But don't let that be the reason why; don't go on a quest of self-discovery so you can find someone else. Let God show you who He created you to be and how He wants to use you in this world for His glory. I promise you, it is a exciting adventure worth going on - with or without a significant other. 

6.) God is able. 

It sounds simple, but people get all freaked out about meeting the right person or marrying the wrong person. I understand that a little. When you pass the middle of your twenties and there's still no ring on your left hand, you can begin to wonder when God is going to write your love story. But we needn't worry or try to answer all the questions we may have about why. Because get this: God is able. He is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine. And He has given us His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we may have a close relationship with Him. He sent Jesus to die and rise again so that we might be forgiven and redeemed. We believe that God cares about our souls and has the power to save us and that He, in fact, has done so. So then, how hard is it to also believe that He cares about our hearts and our dreams and is also able to give us our heart's desire in His perfect timing and in His perfect ways? It's not hard for Him. He is able to work out the who, what, when, where, and how of our love story.

7.) It's all about Jesus. 

Our relationships aren't solely about us. They're about God. Marriage is God's idea. And marriage is a picture of God's love for this world. He designed marriage for His glory, not ours. I've heard enough married couples say that marriage isn't always easy. It requires selflessness, sacrifice, forgiveness, and unconditional love. It requires choosing to love someone when you wake up each morning and dedicating your life to one person. God intends for marriage to show the watching world what a pure and holy love looks like, how deeply His love is for humanity. Two people who understand this won't waste their time on petty fights or disagreements. They will learn to work together and love each other well for God's glory and honor and praise. When I get married one day, I pray that our love shows God's love, the greatest love ever. I can think of no greater privilege and no greater purpose for my future marriage. 

Single, dating, engaged, or married - whenever this blog post finds you, I pray God's good, pleasing, and perfect will to be done in your relationships for His glory. Let's trust Him and see His goodness in our lives. And let us always remember that it is all about Him. With Jesus, our Good Shepherd, and the Holy Spirit guiding our path, we can trust that God is also guiding the path of our future spouse. 

Remember this: Jesus Christ's love for us is enough. More than enough. His love in our hearts is the only way we can ever love anyone else as we should - from a place of wholeness and holiness. Let's love Jesus with all that we are and trust Him with all of our hearts. He is faithful! 

Before We Go Any Further...

I've been praying a lot lately about what I want this blog to be about and what God wants me to share.

And I realized something. 

I need to write this post before I write all the others. 

I need to say something first before I say anything else. 

What I write in this blog post is one of the greatest lessons I have learned in my life.

And unless you understand that everything I write is filtered through this lens, much of what I say on here will make no sense. 

So, what is it? 

It's simple. I'm sure you're heard it before. I guarantee it. 

But I need to say this here on my blog so that I know that I've said it and shared this with you. 

It's about forgiveness. 

Forgiveness. 

How did that word make you react when you read it just now?

What does forgiveness mean to you? 

Can I share with you what it means to me? 

Forgiveness is loving another person as God has loved me and will always love me: unconditionally. 

God is flawless and I am not. But by His grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I can love others as He loves me. I can forgive others as He has forgiven me. 

Well, you might be thinking: What does forgiveness have to do with writing? 

Without forgiveness - receiving God's forgiveness and forgiving all those who have hurt me - this blog, this dream to be an author, all of this would vanish. Poof. Gone. 

This website, this book, this calling would be nonexistent. Nothing. 

I'm going to write on this blog about chasing your dreams for God's glory. But if I fail to share this with you, it's all a waste.

Because without forgiveness, you will fail. 

I know what that's like. When you feel like you have so many hopes for your life, but it feels like someone pressed the pause button.  

Unforgiveness is such a huge sin. It might not seem that big of a deal to you. The church doesn't always talk about this. But I believe it's something we need to talk about more. 

Because unforgiveness is so destructive.  

Yet it's so subtle. That's how the enemy of our soul works.

We get hurt because of the fallenness of this world and we don't let it go. We hold on to the pain, not being able to reconcile God's goodness in the face of brokenness.  

But it all creeps up on you. Slowly, slowly. Like how snowflakes fall one-by-one and yet blanket the ground in an icy white frost.

Moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, it all adds up. And you're unaware.

Until you're caught in a blizzard. 

In this case, caught in unforgiveness. 

That's how it works. 

When it's finally a problem, that's when you realize its presence. But for a while it's dormant. All is well. The seas are calm. 

Then you try to row your boat to the other side and a storm rages. You cannot get going. You're tossed around and left confused. 

And this is it: it's not the winds or the waves outside of you; it's the tempest inside your heart. That battle going on within. 

I've been there. 

Stuff happens. And sometimes it's hard to believe that God can work all things for good. Been there. Felt that. I understand. 

I write more about this in my book, so I want to save those details for you to read there. 

But what happened was my Dad walked away from God when I was in high school. It was so horrible seeing the man who introduced me to Jesus become the prodigal son. This broke my heart is so many ways. So many ways. 

People might wonder why I'm so passionate about helping people follow Christ and not compromise. Why I encourage others to live wholeheartedly for Jesus. Why I talk and write about this so much. 

I have seen firsthand the darkness and brokenness of a life without Jesus. 

This all happened when I was 17, a junior in high school. I was still somewhat wide-eyed and excited about this thing called life. I was looking forward to senior year and college starting soon. My whole life was unfolding and just about to begin. I was sweet and fragile. I still am this way. 

So when I saw my father walk away from Jesus and turn his back on his faith, I felt my world begin to quake.

Yet what surprised me the most, though, is that my world did not shatter. While my father's faith in God seemed to be dwindling, my faith in God was growing. As much as all of this hurt me to see my father turn away from God, it taught me something very important: my faith in God was not some hand-me-down borrowed religion from my parents. It was my own.

I knew this because when my Dad's faith fell, mine didn't. By God's grace, my faith remained. By God's grace. And it grew even stronger. 

I could cry at the perfect faithfulness of God. He held my hand through this entire season - from the moment my Dad ran away until the moment he ran back. Back into the arms of His loving Heavenly Father. A Father who never stopped chasing after my Dad with His grace and love. And who watched over me through it all and never let go of my hand. And who holds me even still. 

I love my Dad. He is an amazing man of God. I don't hold anything against him for what he walked through. His life is different than mine. I don't judge him. I love my Dad. I'll say it again. 

While he was away from God, I wasn't mean to him. I didn't wish anything bad for him. I just wanted him to come home, to come back. To talk to me about Jesus again with that excitement in his voice and light in his eyes. To sit next to me at church. To quote Bible verses to me and pray with me. 

During that time, I remember talking with him - our conversations going on for hours and hours - somehow trying to change him, to reset his distorted viewpoint on God. 

It took me a long, long, long, LONG time to realize something: Only God Himself can change a human being. I cannot. His love in me can change someone. But I myself cannot. Only God could change my Dad. 

I came to a point where I just prayed and prayed for him. From when I was in high school to when I was at SPU, on my knees in my Emerson dorm room each night. Praying for God to reach my Dad.

Praying and praying for God to do what was absolutely impossible for me to do. 

Somewhere along the way, after waiting and waiting, and years and years of praying, I became discouraged. My Dad wasn't changing. And it was becoming more and more obvious to me all of the ways he had hurt me and shook up my life.

Why did he have to do this? Why did he have to do this to me? Why did he have to do this to our family? Why did he have to walk away? Why? 

I once heard that true forgiveness is letting go of the hope of changing the past. That's exactly what it was for me, except the opposite. My unforgiveness wasn't out of hate and anger or rage. It was holding on to the past, wishing to be able to change it somehow, yet knowing I couldn't. Wishing to be able to mold it into a different story, a different memory. 

That I could never change the past, which was rippling out and affecting my present, was what made me bitter. Why did God allow this? Why did my heart have to break this way?

And the more I thought about my own pain, the more it made me think about what other people went through. Why did they have to have their hearts break, too? Why did that bad thing happen to them? What is wrong with this world? Why? 

I couldn't understand then, but all the while, God was pursuing me. Asking me to trust that He could work all things together for good. Chasing after my heart and trying not to let it become consumed by unforgiveness and sorrow. 

And during that difficult season, I went to a concert. And God met me there with the answer. One I didn't know I needed. 

I totally did not expect it.

It was the beginning of my healing.  

I was at a Chris August concert in the fall of 2010. I went with my twin sister to the concert held at a church in Seattle. Chris sang a couple songs and then he sang a song that I'll never forget. One called "7X70" - the title a reference to the verse where Jesus says that we should forgive seventy times seven times when someone has hurt us (Matthew 18:22). 

In the song, August shares about forgiving his father and letting it go. 

Going to this concert, I wasn't expecting to come face-to-face with the state of my heart. But as I listened to the lyrics of "7x70", I realized that I needed to let it all go. All of the unforgiveness, the disappointment, the brokenness. 

Tears filled my eyes and I knew that God was calling me to do what was impossible on my own yet possible with Him: forgive my Dad. That night, standing in the darkened church illuminated only by the lights on stage, I surrendered to God. I told Him that I was sorry for my sin. I repented for having so much unforgiveness toward my Dad, maybe even unforgiveness toward God for allowing it. I repented for not letting it go. For holding on to the pain from yesterday and thinking it was too great for God to heal, too hurtful to reconcile with His goodness. I gave it all to God that night. 

As I was learning how to forgive, God reminded me of what Jesus said: 

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. - Matthew 6:14-15

I had been so wrong! In refusing to forgive my Dad, I was denying myself God's forgiveness for myself. I knew that I needed His forgiveness every day and yet here I was living in a state of unforgiveness.

I wasn't forgiving my earthly father and my Heavenly Father wasn't forgiving me. I wasn't experiencing the abundant life because I wasn't forgiving. 

I humbled myself and asked God to reach out and help me. I knew that I couldn't forgive my Dad without His help. 

God showed me how: I started praying for my Dad. Even more than before. Not just praying for Dad to change, but for God to help me forgive. 

And I began to see something very quickly: You cannot pray for someone and harbor unforgiveness toward them at the same time. You cannot pray for someone else and remain unchanged. God was changing my heart, little by little, with His love. And as He poured His love into my heart, I was able to love my Dad unconditionally, forgetting his sin and calling him to return to God.  

I knew that I had finally forgiven my Dad when I began to see who he really was, all that he had been through, and that God loved him infinitely. How could I be unforgiving to someone God loves so dearly? God showed me that my Dad was never intentionally trying to hurt me. He was so hurt himself and his own brokenness is what was affecting me.

God wanted to heal that brokenness. And my brokenness caused by my Dad's brokenness. 

My relationship with God is so precious to me because He has always been there. No one has ever been there for me like God. He was there before my Dad walked away, while my Dad ran away from God, when my Dad returned, while I was hurting, while I was healing, and while I'm soaring now because of His love and forgiveness. 

That's how it feels like - like I'm soaring high on eagle's wings. Sometimes I shudder and think of everything I would have missed if I had held on to that unforgiveness. It would have weighed me down and I would not be the young woman I am now. Who I am is only by God's grace. And by His grace, I was able to forgive and become who He wants me to be, more and more every day now. 

I know with all of my heart that without this decision to forgive my Dad, my story would be different. Very different. Bad different. It would not be beautiful, but very broken. It would not be inspiring, but cautionary. It would be depressing and dark and everything I would never want my life to be, but exactly what life is like without God's forgiveness. 

For my morning devotions, I read the One Year Bible. Every day, there's a passage from the Old Testament, New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs. I love reading the Bible. It's my favorite time of the day. I am desperate for God's Word. It is my very life. 

This week I've been reading about Joseph during my devotions. He had great dreams for his life. And then, out of nowhere, tragedy. His brothers - his own family - sells him into slavery and he is taken to Egypt. There, he works for Pharoah's captain of the palace guard before being falsely accused and thrown into prison.

Joseph spends years in prison before being released. Word gets around that he can interpret dreams because God is with him and gives him the meanings. Because of this, Joseph is made second-in-command to Pharoah himself and rules over the land where he was once a slave. 

After seven years of great harvest and abundance in the land, famine strikes. Hearing there is grain in Egypt, his brothers make the journey from Canaan to find food to sustain their family. Once there, they beg Joseph, who they don't recognize, to give them something to take back home and live on.

Joseph, however, does recognize his brothers, and after testing them a couple times, he reveals his identity and invites them to return with their father Jacob and enjoy life in Goshen. 

There's this one verse from Joseph's story that always stays with me. It gives me chills every time I read it: 

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. - Genesis 50:20

I love that Joseph is able to see past his pain and what they did to him. He understands God's great goodness and love so much so that he no longer holds on to their sin against him or the plans of the enemy.

Joseph, from his position as the right hand man to Pharaoh, can see that all that he has is from God.

And while it took a broken road to get there, God knew what he was doing. Out of his brokenness, God was paving a path for Joseph that would take him from the pit to the prison to the palace. To the palace where he would save his family's lives, and thus generations and generations of God's chosen people. Generations of people who would live and die, and eventually be known as being a part of the lineage of Jesus Christ. 

So much of life can really only be understood when we look back on our past. But not just look at what it was, but remember and see everything with new eyes. And look for God's hand in our past. 

And looking back, I now know that God used my heartbreak to make me care about others more. To think about the words I speak and to speak words of kindness and encouragement. To trust Him through the darkness. To have a faith of my own. To learn how to forgive. To be changed by God's love and discover how to love unconditionally. To see people for who they can be and not just who they are. To leave unforgiveness at the cross and to allow God's love in Jesus Christ to flood my heart and overflow. To surrender all brokeness to God so that He can heal it. To live whole and healed, but always remembering where He's brought me from and what He's done. To see that God had a purpose through it all so that He can reach others through my life by His love.  

Without forgiveness, there would be no story to read here. No book for me to write. No dreams come true. No happy ending. 

It is out of my journey to forgive that this book is possible.

And it's out of God's forgiveness toward me and my forgiveness toward my father that I am able to live the life that Jesus wants me to live.

A life of wholeness and beauty. 

I pray the same for you. 

Is there someone you need to forgive? 

I can't explain all the reasons why your heart had to break the way it did. 

But I know that I know that God is good. And He will work it for good if you trust Him. 

He did it for me. And when you surrender and ask Him to help you forgive all who have hurt you, He will do it for you. 

Don't live brokenhearted. 

Life's too beautiful and God is too good is miss out on your destiny because of a broken heart filled with unforgiveness. A broken heart that God is more than able to heal with His love. 

He will take your brokenness and make it beautiful. I promise you.

And your healed heart will then live to help others see Jesus.

And He will set them free and make them whole. 

And in their freedom and wholeness, they will seek to see others free and whole. 

And together we will fulfill the reasons why God first caused our hearts to start beating: 

We will be the people God created us to be and do what God has called us to do when we love and forgive. We will be healed and whole and beautiful messengers of the Good News to this world.

And they will listen because they will see God's love in our hearts. They will see Jesus in us. And this world will be changed by His love. One heart at a time.