I Have Fought the Good Fight, I Have Finished the Race, I Have Kept the Faith

I love this post by Pastor Jim of Enon Chapel in Midway Park, NC... because my dream in life was always to make an Olympic Team as a runner.

The 1981 Oscar winning film, Chariots of Fire, tells the true life story of two men, Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, and their paths to and involvement in the Games of the VIII Olympiad (1924) in Paris. In an early scene in the movie, Harold Abrahams, has just suffered his first-ever defeat in a race. Afterwards, he sits alone pouting in the bleachers. His girlfriend approaches him and tries to encourage him. He rudely rejects her efforts and bellows in rage, “If I can’t win, I won’t run!” Calmly and wisely she replies, “If you don’t run, you can’t win.”

Abrahams took her counsel and continued his pursuit of Olympic gold. He qualified for the British National team and sailed to France to compete. At 7:00 PM (local time in Paris) on July 7, 1924, Harold Abrahams won the Olympic Gold Medal in the hundred-meter dash, beating all the American favorites, including the 1920 Gold medal winner, Charlie Paddock.

Eric Liddell, who grew up a missionary kid and eventually went back to China with his family, represented Britain in these same Olympics. He was known for his conviction not to run on Sunday even in the face of winning an Olympic medal. He therefore forfeited his 100m race, and ran the 400m the next day, beating the race favorite and setting a new world record. He is a hero of mine and made two of my favorite quotes: "When I run I feel God's pleasure." and "God made me for a purpose; that purpose was China, but He also made me fast."

Abram's was definitely faithful to continue his dream and not quit and his dream came true, but Eric was faithful unto death serving Christ on the mission field in China. He spent 18 years after his Olympic medal in China, his last couple of years at a rural mission station in Shaochang where they were desperately short of medical help and the living conditions were rough. He was then moved to a safe camp for missionaries when the Japanese took over the mission station during the Chinese and Japanese war. He died there of a brain tumor, many think due to stressful work conditions and malnutrition.

God gives so many of us dreams that we do not need to give up on, but do we keep on running when our dreams do or do not come true? Do we have a view of the lost as we chase after the dreams God has put in our heart? Can you really say, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Tim. 4:7)?