BROKEN
BEFORE GOD

Topics: Anxiety; Assurance; Brokenness; Consequences; Danger; Despair; Doubt; Eternal Life; Faith; Fame; Heaven; Mortality; Pain; Seeking God; Suffering; Trials

References: Job 6:10; John 11:25–26; 14:1–4; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:10–26; 10:8–12; Revelation 21:4

The motorcyclist Evel Knievel became “the most famous daredevil on earth” during the 1960s and 1970s. Jumping over buses, cars, and anything else put before him earned him $30 million. But the price he paid was forty bone fractures and a broken back (seven times). He was in a coma for weeks following a crash at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

In 2007, he was also a broken man. Pins and fasteners held him together. He was hooked up to oxygen, and synthetic heroin was shot into his spine to control pain. His lungs were scarred with pulmonary fibrosis due to smoking. His liver was destroyed by alcohol.

On April 1, 2007, Knievel announced to a worldwide audience that he “believed in Jesus Christ” for the first time. He professed his personal faith in Christ to more than four thousand people who gathered inside the Crystal Cathedral for Palm Sunday services in Garden Grove, California, and to presumably millions via an Hour of Power telecast of the service to more than one hundred countries.

At his request he was baptized before the congregation and TV cameras by Dr. Robert H. Schuller, founder of the Crystal Cathedral. Christianity Today reported that “Daredevil Knievel’s testimony triggered mass baptisms at Crystal Cathedral.”

—Jim Saraceno, “Long-Retired Knievel Frail, Feisty, Still Cheating Death,” USAToday.com (January 3, 2007)