Running the Kingdom Race
For the past two weeks, everybody and their mom (especially their moms) have been watching the Olympics. It is a time where football fans become gymnastics cheerleaders, and hockey players root for their favorite synchronized swimmers! Heck, I even became a fan of canoeing. Everywhere on TV, radio and the internet, you see banners and ads and screens trumpeting the olympic spirit! Citius! Altius! Fortius! Faster! Higher! Stronger! But recently, NBC ran an interesting bio on one of the Olympics’ most famous athletes - Eric Liddell.
Liddell is recognizable mostly because of the biopic “Chariots of Fire” which won an academy award in the early 1980s. It portrayed a man of principle, who would not run in the 100m final because the event was to be held on a sunday. In the movie, Liddell says “God made countries, God makes kings, and the rules by which they govern. And those rules say that the Sabbath is His. And I for one intend to keep it that way.” It was this stand and his subsequent unexpected win in the 400m final that made his story an inspiration for generations to come.
But to Liddell, gold medals and races won weren’t the goal. For him, God had called him to follow in his parents’ footsteps and spend a life devoted to the Chinese people.
While in China, Liddell taught english to Chinese students and later became a pastor. In 1941, he went with his brother, a doctor, and served in a remote medical mission, saving thousands who came there for help. But soon after, he was taken into captivity with other foreigners and placed into a Japanese prison camp.
While in the camp, Eric became a leader, teacher and mentor. He gained the trust of both his fellow prisoners, their families and his captors. Each of these knew he could be trusted to do what was right. When he had a chance to leave the camp in a prisoner exchange, he gave his spot to a pregnant woman. Most of all, he daily prayed for his captors and encouraged others to join him. He was grounded in the promises of God’s Word and taught others to build their foundation on that as well. 6 months before the camp was freed by American soldiers, he tragically died of a brain tumor. He is memorialized in China and Scotland.
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