BOOK REVIEW

Written by Deborah.

CHARIOTS OF FIRE

by W.J. Weatherby

Chariots of Fire is about Eric Liddell, who in 1924 won the Gold Medal for a race he was never prepared to run. Eric was a Scotsman who later became a missionary to China. His life was dedicated to service for God. When he traveled to France for the 1924 Olympics, his 100-meter heat was scheduled to be run on Sunday. This was the race he’d trained for; it was his long suit and his strength. However, he refused to run it on the Sabbath. No Olympic official could talk him into compromising his principles. His trainers finally “let it go” for they knew he was a man of integrity. He was heart broken and severely disappointed that all his hard work and training wouldn't be utilized for the games. Why had he come to the Olympics to become a disappointment to so many (his native Scotland/representing England at the games, his family, his friends, his trainers…)? After he made the decision to not race on Sunday he was asked, Do you regret missing the race of a lifetime?” His famous reply, “Regrets yes—doubts no.” Eric Liddell knew that to obey God was right, although painfully difficult. However, God had a greater plan of blessing for his servant. On that Sabbath day, Mr. Liddell stood in the Church of Scotland in the center of Paris and opened his sermon with a verse from Isaiah 40: Behold, the nations are as a drop in the bucket and are counted as the small dust in the balance… Hours later, the Olympic committee made an offer to him, “Mr. Liddell, would you like to run the 400-meter race on Monday?” (Four times the distance as the race on Sunday!) He prayerfully considered and decided that with God’s help he would run the race. No one favored him to win and the two greatest runners for this heat were Americans. Jackson Scholtz was favored but he knew that Eric was on a mission—a higher mission. Mr. Scholtz passed him a note from his competitive lane just moments before the race gun popped. The note read: In the Old Book, it says, He that honors me, I will honor. The race began and Eric led from the starting line. After 200 meters, everyone expected him to collapse from his full blown effort, but instead he lifted up his head and raised his chin to the sky—he was running for God. In utter disbelief the crowd watched him fly around the last 200 meters in such a non-athletic fashion that they respectfully and quietly rose to their feet. That wasn’t a man running out on the field track any more—that was a human manifesting the power of God. He finished the ¼ mile race in 47 3/5 seconds, setting a new world record. He won the Gold Medal and came home to England and then to Edinburgh a hero. But his greatest achievement was his commitment to follow God first and foremost—no matter what it cost him. After the Olympics, Mr. Eric Liddell served as a missionary in China. He died in 1945, while interned at the Japanese Weishien Camp (during the Japanese occupation in China.) 

http://ericliddell.org/

http://www.electricscotland.com/history/men/eric_liddell.htm

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