The best gift I received today

At 7 a.m., my youngest burst into the room booming, “SANTA CAME!” From that moment, it was game on and within minutes,wrapping paper flew like leaves in a hurricane. Just looking around at the unwrapped presents, I’ve decided that no one in this house was THAT good this year — Our house looks like Santa ransacked the place. Bellies are full and dreams fulfilled — Amy did an amazing job making Christmas happen this year. The boys played. Amy enjoyed time with her parents. I spent over a hour putting stickers on a big plastic Millennium Falcon. Since then, I’ve been eating peanut butter fudge and reading the book Unbroken. Unbroken is Laura Hillenbrand’s excellent biography of Olympian and WW2 prisoner of war Louis Zamperini . It’s also the best story of forgiveness I’ve read since the New Testament. I read it last year but since the movie is out, I thought I’d reread it again.

I’m thankful I did.

Why? I struggle with forgiveness. I’m not sure if it is a genetic trait, but I have a real gift at holding grudge. And if you’ll listen long enough, I can make a strong case against several people who have hurt me or my family. I’ve grappled (at times unsuccessfully) with anger and wanting revenge. And lately, due to fatigue and some tough personal issues, I’ve felt that anger starting to boil up again. So reading about how Zamperini managed to let his demons after what he went through is the right message at the right time for me.

I love this quote from the book, “The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that they release from pain will come only when they make their tormentors suffer.”

Wow. Of course, your tormentors don’t even care that you are angry. You’re eating yourself up while they live their lives. Like Mark Twain said, “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”

Zamperini suffered PTSD after the war and dreamt nightly of killing one particularly savage prison guard named the Bird. He drank to escape his nightmares, but couldn’t. One night, he awoke to find himself choking his pregnant wife. Yet, after attending a Billy Graham crusade, Zamperini forgave those who trespassed against him. He never had another nightmare until the day he died this year at the age of 97.

As he used to say, “All things work together for the good.”

I’ve been showered with amazing gifts today. But probably the best one I received was from a man I’ll never meet. Louis Zamperini reminded me of the importance of letting my grudges go. And I can’t think of a better day of receiving a gift that precious than on Christmas day.

P.S. If you enjoyed Unbroken, I highly recommend Zamperini’s own book “Don’t Give Up, Don’t Give In.” It’s a book about what he’s learned in life — and one he completed two days before he passed from pneumonia.