Louis Zamperini: From Revenge to Release

Louis Zamperini was an Olympic runner who survived a plane crash, weeks adrift on a raft in the Pacific, and brutal treatment in Japanese prison camps during World War II. He came home a hero, but inside he was eaten up with nightmares, drinking, and dreams of strangling his old guards, and his marriage was falling apart. In 1949 his wife finally got him to a Billy Graham tent meeting in Los Angeles, and he remembered the promises he had made to God on that raft. He gave his life to Christ, and he said the nightmares stopped. Later he went back to Japan, sought out his former captors, and told them he forgave them.

A Brother’s Hug in a Dallas Courtroom

In 2018 an off-duty Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, walked into the wrong apartment and shot and killed Botham Jean, an innocent man sitting in his own home. At her sentencing in October 2019, Botham’s 18-year-old brother Brandt took the stand and told her that if she was truly sorry, he forgave her. He said what he really wanted was for her to give her life to Christ. Then he asked the judge if he could give her a hug, and the two embraced in front of the bench while the courtroom sobbed. Not everyone agreed with him, but nobody who saw it ever forgot it.