I Looked Up
Louis Zamperini and two other crewmen amazingly survived the crash of their B-24 in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. With two small life rafts, six bars of chocolate, and eight half-pints of water, they started one of the longest survival ordeals ever recorded.
For forty-seven days they faced hunger, thirst, storms, and attack by an enemy aircraft. Sharks were with them constantly, often bumping the raft. A constant lack of water seemed to be the most trying part of their ordeal. They were often tantalized by showers that passed by just too far away, as they exhausted themselves trying to row toward them. Trying to fight dehydration, one would tread water beside the raft while the other two fought off the sharks with paddles. They came to a point of crisis after seven days without water. They were ready to try anything, as Zamperini related:
In the end, we resorted to prayer.
When I prayed, I meant it. I didn’t understand it, but I meant it. I knew from church that there was a God and that he’d made the heavens and the earth, but beyond that I wasn’t familiar with the Bible because in those days we Catholics, unlike Protestants, weren’t encouraged to read it carefully at least in my church we weren’t. Yet on the raft, I was like anybody else, from the native who lived thousands of years ago on a remote island to the atheist in a foxhole: when I got to the end of my rope, I looked up.204
The three men prayed specifically for water. Within an hour a squall was heading for them, and this time did not veer away. They drank until they could drink no more. They didn’t know if they had received a miracle or not, but they decided not to take any chances. Their prayers became a daily and serious matter.
I lift up my eyes to the hills where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
—Psalm 121:12