What stays with you latest and deepest?

I am not an animal person. While I won't condemn those of you who are pet lovers, I will say that I don't understand you. :-) Of all the intrinsically valuable things I can think of, domestic animals would never cross my mind. Puppies and kittens are cute, but only if they aren't mine. Once they become my responsibility to care for, feed, groom, and yes... LOVE... I give up.

If you just gasped out loud at my ice cold heart, you can keep reading. This post actually has nothing to do with pets, but my aversion to domestic animals is what kept me from reading Laura Hillenbrand's famous novel Seabiscuit. Shamefully, I had little interest in reading a story about a horse. Maybe that's why I never enjoyed Black Beauty?

I did not, however, pass up the opportunity to read her NEWEST novel, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. Published and released last October, the book details the life of Olympic runner Louis Zamperini, who enters WWII as a bombadier, wholly ignorant to the tumultous future ahead of him. Growing up, he was, as Hillenbrand says, a "one-man insurgency," wreaking havoc on his community and constantly shaming his parents. Once he enters the Air Force, his life is forever changed as he comes dangerously close to death on countless occasions. His experiences, like so many others during the war, are horrifying and difficult to fathom.

Hillenbrand spent nearly a decade researching, interviewing, studying, and writing in preparation for this novel, despite a chronic illness that keeps her confined predominantly to her bedroom or office. She tells the story as if it's fiction, making each event, person, and place come alive on the page. Not only that, but her tone is appropriately somber and respectful in all the right places.

Like David, Solomon, or Abraham, who encountered both gross sin and abundant grace throughout their own lives, Zamperini bucks against the authority of God and is met with miraculous provision. If ever a person seemed to have reason to doubt the existence of a loving Creator, Louis did. If ever a person seemed to have reason to become embittered, broken, and self-consumed, Louis did. But God in His sovereignty knew better.

To say that I enjoyed this book is an understatement. I was awed, humbled, and convicted in so many ways, and after a conversation with a colleague of mine, I came away agreeing with her. Every American should read this book. Maybe even twice.

This is a picture of Louis examining the flak from his beloved B-24.