Eric Liddell  28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.  29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; Olympic rings Running shoes

Stop watch Gold medal “God made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure”  “Straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” v.13,14  In the 1924 Olympics held in Paris, Liddell refused to run his 100m Olympic heat because it was on a Sunday. He was put under a lot of pressure to run but held onto his beliefs that Sunday is a holy day (the sabbath). However, he was given a place in the 400m instead.  Although this wasn’t what he had trained for, he won – and became one of Britain’s most celebrated 400m runners before leaving and becoming a in . After just a couple of months training for the , the day of the race came, and as Liddell went to the starting blocks, an American masseur (a person who helps to massage muscles) slipped a piece of paper into Liddell's hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30. It read, "Those who honour me I will honour." Liddell ran with that piece of paper in his hand. He not only won the race, but broke the existing world record, with a time of 47.6 seconds.  Liddell went to Northern China in1941. As the country was in war with the Japanese, life in China was becoming so dangerous that the British Government advised British nationals to leave. Liddell’s wife and children left for Canada to stay with her family but Liddell continued to do God’s work and accepted a new position in Shaochang, which gave service to the poor.  He joined his brother, Rob, who was a doctor there. The station was severely short of help and the who served there were exhausted. There was a constant stream of local people who came at all hours to get medical treatment. Liddell arrived at the station in time to relieve his brother who was ill.  Liddell suffered many hardships himself as a missionary. Food, medicines, and other supplies ran short at the camp. There were many groups in the camp and when some rich businessmen managed to smuggle in some eggs, Liddell shamed them into sharing them with the rest of the camp. Fellow missionaries were acting selfishly, but Eric kept himself busy by helping the elderly, teaching at the camp school Bible classes, arranging games and also by teaching the children science. He was known to the children as Uncle Eric.  A friend who knew him and worked with him in China, stated that Liddell was "the finest Christian gentleman it has been my pleasure to meet. In all the time in the camp, I never heard him say a bad word about anybody.“  His hard work and exhaustion caused a great deal of illness. He eventually died of a brain tumour and his last words were,’It is complete surrender’ – meaning that his life was all about surrendering to God’s work. In 2008 it was revealed by the Chinese authorities that Liddell had given up an opportunity to leave the camp and instead gave his place to a pregnant woman. Apparently, the Japanese did a deal with the British, with Churchill's approval, for prisoner exchange. Therefore, because Eric was a famous athlete he was one of the chosen as part of the prisoner exchange. However, he gave his place to another. This information was released near the time of the 2008 Olympics by the Chinese government and apparently news of this great act of sacrifice came as a surprise even to his family members. He was indeed, a compassionate and caring Christian, always helping others and putting them before himself.  Running  Doing God’s work  Helping others  Making sacrifices  Accepting hardship as part of God’s plan  Teaching sports  Reading Bible stories to children  What is more important – the physical race or the spiritual race?

 How can we combine the two successfully?