Running to Win
It was 1924 and Eric Liddell had received word that the race he planned to run would be held on Sunday. He was expected to win. Not only the race, but the title of the world’s fastest man. Liddell sent word that he would not run on the Sabbath but would gladly run the 400-meter dash.
The British Track Association argued with Liddell trying to get him to change his mind. “Why not go to church in the morning and you can run the race in the afternoon?”
Liddell refused to compromise. “My Sabbath lasts all day,” he told them and turned his attention to the 400-meter race.
No one expected him to win, especially his opponents. They were told not to worry. He is a sprinter and will most likely pass out 50 yards from the finish line.
After shaking hands with each of the competitors, he dug his spikes into the starting holes and waited for the announcer as a hush fell over the stadium.
At the crack of the starter’s pistol, he bounded forward. With head back, arms flailing, and his mouth open he crossed the finish line five meters ahead of the man who came in second!!!
The crowd went wild with applause.
Everyone was surprised, even Liddell. His 47.6 second sprint set two records, one for the world and one for the Olympics.
How did he do it?
His strategy was simple, he told reporters. “I run the first 200 meters as hard as I can. Then for the second 200 meters, with God’s help, I run harder.”
In remembering his story who can forget the 1981 movie “Chariots of Fire” and the iconic scene of the young men running on the beach preparing for the race of their lives.
Born in China to missionary parents, he felt God’s call to China. When reporters would ask about his future, he would respond. “I was made for China.” In 1925, the London Missionary Society sent him to China where he taught science and Bible classes in a boys’ college.
But he continued to race.
In 1928 he competed in the 1928Far Eastern Games in China and won the 200-meter race in 21.8 seconds and took the 400 meter in 47.8 seconds equaling the same winning times in the Summer Olympics in Amsterdam later that year.
In 1937, he was transferred to Xiaochang in the northern plains of China. He served as a rural evangelist alongside his brother who was a physician.
Shortly before he was transferred, Japan invaded China.
The Japanese military regularly murdered Christian missionaries. So, he sent his pregnant wife and two daughters to Canada for their safety realizing he might never see them again and continued caring for the sick and wounded.
By 1943, the Japanese ordered all foreigners to an internment camp in northern China. They crammed 1,800 people into a space the size of a football field. He taught the children math and became the director of sports and even ran races in the compound.
According to fellow prisoners, in addition to his official duties, he also cleaned the latrines, chopped wood, removed garbage and worked in the kitchen. No job was too small, and he never complained.
Soon he began losing weight and suffered from malnutrition. He walked slower. His head ached. His declining health revealed that he had an inoperable brain tumor.
On February 21, 1945, he was seized by several convulsions and fell into a coma. His last words to a friend were, “it’s complete surrender.”
It’s been 100 years since he won the Gold Medal. Interestingly, it is not the race that he won that he is remembered for…it is the race he would not run!
But that is the tip of the iceberg.
He ran hard, and when the race got harder…he gave it all he had and trusted God to give him the rest.
“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith…” (Hebrews 12:1-2)