I recently read a book called "Unbroken." It focuses on the story of Louie Zamperini, a bombardier during World War Two who gets captured by the Japanese. He, along with thousands of other prisoners of war (POWs), suffered through years of hazing, beatings, and other forms of abuse. Some Americans were gone from home nearly four years. Louie, who suffered especially bad, was gone about two and a half years. The military even declared him dead. When Louie did eventually make it home, his family and friends were, of course, overjoyed to see him alive and well.
However joyous the reunion, there were consequences. The Zamperini family, and thousands of other families, had suffered through perhaps the biggest family crisis any of them had yet to deal with. Not only did families lose fathers, brothers and sons for years, many of them never made it home. Those men that did make it home were never the same again. Often, the former POWs fell into dark chasms of depression, anxiety and relied heavily on alcohol to cope with their war experiences. This caused a "pile up" of crises, with one crisis leading or causing another. A family watching a loved one head to war is a crisis on it's own, but that could lead the loved one to a prisoner of war camp which caused horrendous PTSD, which lead to alcoholism when they finally did make it home. The alcohol caused more crises, sometimes fueling abuse of other family members, particularly the spouse. So, when the family thought the war was over, some other crises were just starting. How did these families cope with this? What is the best way to deal with crises and the other problems that followed?
There are numerous ways to properly cope with crises, no matter what it is. One appropriate way I would like to address is that of religious support. In Louie's case, this is the coping method that saved his life and his marriage. Nearly four years after the war, Louie agreed to join his wife in listening to a Billy Graham sermon. Billy Graham was a very strong evangelists that led many to God. He reminded Louie that Louie had made a promise to God that he would serve Him if Louie survived the war. This pushed Louie to stop drinking and eventually help turn other people's lives around for the better. Instead of the pile-up crises destroying Louie's life, he turned towards religion and found exponential growth there. Something else, religion, had filled the pit of alcoholism Louie was falling in.
An article from the American Psychological Association mentions how religion is making an impact on others, specifically when the world was enduring quarantine from Covid-19. " Religion and belief are now seen by many researchers and clinicians as an important way to cope with trauma and distress thanks to research over the last three decades." It goes on to say, "People who made more use of positive religious coping methods had better outcomes than those who struggled with God, their faith or other people about sacred matters." Of course, this research supports Louie's coping method. When life seems to be overwhelming we can replace our bad behavior in life with good, fulfilling behavior, which religion often provides opportunities for.
Belonging to a religion will not only provide good behavior opportunities, but it enables an individual to exercise faith. Faith can be developed in one's God or even oneself. We need to be confident in our abilities to overcome anything this life throws our way. We are powerful beings with powerful potential. If Louie Zamperini can survive a plane crash, 47 days on a life raft, multiple prisoner of war camps, and beat alcoholism, we can overcome any crisis that is thrown our way.
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