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| Eric Liddell (Paris Olympics 1924) |
In Liddell's case, this was tantamount to saying: Thy will be done. From his birth into a London Missionary Society family to his death within a World War II internment camp, Liddell showed an extraordinary capacity for living the righteous life. Born in 1902,
he spent his first five years in China. He afterwards
attended a boarding school in England that was specifically for the sons of missionaries. It was
at this school that Liddell first discovered his love of sports.
Anyone who has seen the Academy Award-winning Chariots of Fire knows how that love culminated in Liddell's sterling performance at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
Wikipedia reports that nevertheless, there was another love even more compelling than running for the glory of God – and that was the love of missionary work. After returning to China, Liddell was asked whether he ever regretted choosing this latter path over a life of sports fame. His reply: …I'm glad I'm at the work I'm engaged in now. A fellow's life counts for far more at this than the other.
Liddell's missionary work in China included the following tasks: teaching
at an Anglo-Chinese College (grades 1-12), overseeing a Sunday School at a church where his father was pastor, coaching athletics, and helping to build a stadium.
During a 1932 furlough, he became an ordained minister.
The crowning achievements of his ministry came under the harshest of circumstances. In 1941, British nationals were urged to leave China due to the growing threat from Japan. Liddell instead chose to continue his missionary work. As a result, he was imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp in 1943. One of his fellow internees later described him as "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." Langdon Gilkey, another internee who survived to become a prominent theologian, had this to say about Liddell: It is rare indeed that a person has the good fortune to
meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone
I have ever known.
Liddell did not survive this camp experience. He died there in February 1945 and was buried "in the garden behind the Japanese officers' quarters." His gravesite remained generally undiscovered until 1989. It wasn't
until 2008 that Chinese officials revealed the true nature of Liddell's ultimate sacrifice.
He had been offered an opportunity to leave the camp (through a prisoner-exchange "deal"), but "instead gave his place to a pregnant woman."
Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Liddell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariots_of_Fire
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