May 12 - Run the Race

May 12 – Run the Race

Do you remember the gold medal athletes from the 1924 Olympics?  You probably remember one of them … Eric Liddell, the subject of the movie “Chariots of Fire.”

Liddell’s parents were missionaries to China.  He was in school in Scotland, their home when he was winning rugby games with his team and showing a great deal of promise as a runner.  As he began to win more and more races, people began to encourage him to attempt a run at the Olympics.  

Eric Liddell’s faith was always strong.  His faith in himself as a speaker wasn’t so great.  When an evangelist asked him to speak at a series of meeting, he didn’t want to accept, but the evangelist persuaded him to do so by telling him that men would come to hear the great runner speak about the Lord.  Eric did so, telling of God’s saving grace.

His deep faith nearly kept him from running the greatest race of his life.  The qualifying heats for the 100 meter race – his best event, were held on a Sunday in Paris.  He couldn’t bring himself to run those races … he spoke in a church instead.  He won the bronze in the 200 meter and qualified for the 400 meter. He told the crowds that came to watch him run "I don't need explanations from God. I simply believe him and accept whatever comes my way." He ran the race with everything he had, setting a world record and crossing the finish line well before any other runner.

But, this wasn’t the end for Eric Liddell.  Two years later, he sailed for China as a missionary.  He joined his family there, bringing his new wife and two children.  He worked in his father’s church and taught English in a local school.  They were overjoyed to be together.

But, the fighting between the communists and nationalists in China threatened them and soon Japan was threatening to invade.  Eric was asked by the London Missionary Society to travel into the midst of war-torn China.  He did so, asking his wife to stay behind.  For two years, from 1937 to 1939, he cared for Japanese and Chinese alike under all sorts of horrible circumstances.

In 1939, they returned to Canada on furlough and when they returned to China the next year, things had gotten much worse.  No longer were they safe.  The Japanese ordered all foreigners out of the country.  Eric remained but sent his wife and daughters back to Canada.  He hoped that all would work out and he could leave in 1942, but before he could go, he was captured and put into a Japanese prisoner of war camp.

Rather than simply existing in the camp, Eric Liddell continued his ministry until he died of a brain tumor in 1944, still in the camp.