Inspired

"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."

The word 'inspired' does not even start to describe how I felt after I watched 'Chariots of Fire' for about the 8th time tonight. The stories of Harold Abrahams (the U.S. athlete) and Eric Liddell (the U.K. athlete) were interesting, but what stopped me on my track was my after movie search on the internet about Eric Liddell. He owes much of his fame more to a race he didn't run than any he did.

I always knew he was born in Tianjin, China to missionary parents, I knew he died in China, but

1) I didn't know though he was born to missionary parents, he didn't see Jesus as his savior and Lord until he was 20 years old.

2) I didn't know it was only a year after he won the 400 yards gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics that he decided to go back to China to serve there.

3) I didn't know he sent his wife (born of Canadian missionary parents) and three young daughters back to Canada when the Japanese invaded, but decided to stay in China himself.

4) I didn't know that when Winston Churchill arranged to have a prisoner exchange with the Japanese, Eric Liddell was, of course, on the list, but gave up his place to a pregnant woman.

5) I didn't know about the stories of the many lives he has touched and changed while he suffered with them in war-torn China.

5) I didn't know that when he died of a brain tumor while a prisoner in a Japanese concentration camp in Weifang in 1945, just 5 months before the Japanese was defeated, his last words were, "It's complete surrender."

Eric Liddell surrender his all, he is a true missionary. And I am ashamed to call myself one when I read about his total obedience. He is my hero.