God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.
Part 1
Every now and again I get so excited and inspired by a life that was or is lived fully for the Lord. It is like a mini-explosion in me. It is so encouraging and causes me to lift up my heart in praise and fills my every pore to want to give the glory to God for it. It makes me long to sit down with the person and have a natter over a cup of tea with them. I want to get to know them more.
Eric Liddell was one such life.
On Saturday evening I sat and watched the 
film from 1981 – Chariots of Fire. Call me slow or behind the times if you want – Hey! I can deal with that. I was 16 when it came out on circuit and a Christian, but somehow I managed to miss it along the way although I enjoyed Vangelis’ music from it.
The film was both beautifully shot and beautifully written. Good old Brits!
I went and did research about Eric, as I was so moved by his faithfulness and by the way he spoke about the Lord to his sister and others and you could tell from the dialogue that he did not just know about the Lord, but that he knew Him intimately.
I decided to do some research on Eric as I am well aware of how the movie industry version of some lives, change the truth about by having things added and moved around to suit what makes the best story for the viewer. I wanted the real story without the embellishes.
I was not disappointed.
I found a website called The Eric Liddell Centre amongst other sites with info on him.
He was born in China on 16 Jan 1902 to London Mission Society Missionaries, Rev & Mrs James Dunlop Liddell. When he was age 6 in 1908, he was sent back to England, to Eltham College in Blackheath, which was a school for the sons of missionaries at the time. He excelled in sports whilst there and also became known as the fastest runner in Scotland. He left in 1920, then went on to study a BSc in Pure Science at the University of Edinburgh.
During his university years, he played Rugby for Scotland and gained a reputation for speed as playing in the wing position and also played for Scotland’s Rugby Team in 1922-23.
He also belonged to and was chosen to speak for Glasgow Students’ Evangelical Union (GSEU) because he was a strong Christian. The GSEU hoped that he would draw large crowds, so that many people would hear the Gospel. The GSEU would send out a group of eight to ten men to an area where they would stay with the local population. It was Liddell’s job to be the lead speaker and to evangelize the men of Scotland. Wikipedia
An article printed in the University Newspaper, The Student , ended with this:
Success in athletics sufficient to turn the head of an ordinary man has left Liddell absolutely unspoilt, and his modesty is entirely genuine and unaffected. He has taken his triumph in his stride, as it were, and never made any sort of fuss. What he has thought it right to do, that he has done, looking neither to the left nor to the right, and yielding not one jot or tittle of principle either to court applause or to placate criticism. Courteous and affable, he is utterly free from “gush.” Devoted to his principles, he is without a touch of Pharisaism. The best that can be said of any student is that he has left the fame of his University fairer than he found it, and his grateful Alma mater is proud to recognise that to no man does that praise more certainly belong than to Eric Henry Liddell.
Quite a tribute don’t you think?
Not having time for both rugby and running, he chose running.
Here are a couple of his quotations:
God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.
“The secret of my success over the 400m is that I run the first 200m as fast as I can. Then, for the second 200m, with God’s help I run faster.”
He then went on to train for the 1924 Paris Olympics. In the movie, they portrayed Eric not knowing about the Sunday heats that he was supposed to run for the 100 m sprint and therefoer he had to refuse, based on his personal convictions of not running on the Sabbath.
In the movie we also see him in a meeting with the then Prince of Wales and a few other Aristocrats of the UK Olympic Committee, attemtping to bully and manipulate him to make ’sacrifices’ based on his love for his country and king. He does not budge – showing a no compromise stance for God which was very noble and in keeping with his real-life character. In real life however, he knew about this Sabbath day race months before and changed his discipline to running the 400m instead which was on another day. He went on to win it and got the Olympic Gold medal for it.
He had a peculiar running style and this I found on the Wikipedia site:
Liddell’s unorthodox running style as portrayed in the movie, with his head back and his mouth wide open, is also said to be historically accurate. At an athletics championship in Glasgow, a visitor watching the 440 yard final in which Liddell was a long way from the leaders at the start of the last lap (of a 220 yard track) remarked to a Glasgow native that Liddell would be hard put to win the race. The Glaswegian merely replied, “His head’s no’ back yet.” Liddell then threw his head back and with mouth wide open caught and passed his opponents to win the race
He went back to China after his degree and became a missionary as his father was.
At the core of his life Eric believed that God was his saviour, friend and companion and that everything he did should give God pleasure. As a runner he was the fastest and had achieved the highest glory, and as a Christian he found that his greatest strength came from God. Eric Liddell Centre
In Part 2, I will look into his life as a missionary and how he moved and lived and had his very being in the Lord and how he lived as a Japanese POW. I will share with you how he was an incredible inspiration for those he came into contact with and about his incredible witness for his Lord in the terrible conditions of this camp known as Weishien.
“We are all missionaries. Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ, or we repel them from Christ.”
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)
The Lord bless you.
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