1 Thessalonians 3:9 - 4:2

Few examples of the kind of love with which Paul begs God to fill our text’s Thessalonians were more expansive than Louis Zamperini’s. The Holy Spirit so increased his love that it overflowed onto the least likely of all its recipients. In her outstanding book, Unbroken, Laura Hildebrand describes how Japanese soldiers captured and sent Zamperini to a prisoner of war camp. Corporal Mutsuhiro Wantanabe, among the most sadistic of all Japanese prisoner of war commandants, oversaw that prison. The one whom POW’s called “The Bird” took special pleasure in killing prisoners only after torturing them slowly and for a long time. Zamperini suffered horribly not just before, but also after his release from the prison camp. He probably endured what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Zamperini was obsessed with returning to Japan to hunt down and murder “The Bird.” Eventually Zamperini did return to Japan, but not to kill Wantanabe...

Let’s be clear. Love is a practice. Love is an action. Love is not merely a feeling. The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. preached about this when we taught about what it means to love our enemies. In a sermon delivered in 1957, he said, It’s significant that [Jesus] does not say, “Like your enemy.” Like is a sentimental something, an affectionate something. There are a lot of people that I find it difficult to like. I don’t like what they do to me. I don’t like what they say about me and other people. I don’t like their attitudes. I don’t like some of the things they’re doing. I don’t like them. But Jesus says love them. And love is greater than like. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all [people], so that you love everybody, because God loves them...

always good insights!

Few examples of the kind of love about which Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 3 were more expansive than Louis Zamperini’s. The Holy Spirit so filled him with love that it overflowed onto the least likely of all recipients. Laura Hildenbrand describes part of it in her outstanding book, Unbroken. Japanese soldiers captured and sent Zamperini to a prisoner of war camp. There he fell under the command of Corporal Mutsuhiro Wantanabe, among the most sadistic of all Japanese prisoner of war commandants. The one whom POW’s called “The Bird” took special pleasure in killing prisoners only after torturing them slowly and for a long time. After his release from the prison camp, Zamperini suffered greatly. He probably endured what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Zamperini was obsessed with returning to Japan to hunt down and murder “The Bird.” Eventually Zamperini did return to Japan, but not to kill Wantanaba. He described why in a letter to him: “As a result of my prisoner of war experience under your unwarranted and unreasonable punishment, my post-war life became a nightmare. It was not so much due to the pain and suffering as it was the tension of stress and humiliation that caused me to hate with a vengeance… “The post-war nightmares caused my life to crumble, but thanks to a confrontation with God through the evangelist Billy Graham, I committed my life to Christ. Love has replaced the hate I had for you. Christ said, ‘Forgive your enemies and pray for them.’ “I returned to Japan in 1952 and was graciously allowed to address all the Japanese war criminals at Sugamo Prison … I asked then about you, and was told that you probably had committed Hara Kiri, which I was sad to hear. At that moment, like the others, I also forgave you and now would hope that you had also become a Christian.”

"One of my favorite spiritual guides is the writer Anne Lamott, a person of deep, irreverent and authentic faith. In her book on the craft of writing, she shares the following remembrance: 'Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report written on birds that he'd had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books about birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead..."