God Made me Fast, and when I Run I Feel God's Pleasure

Have any of you seen the movie Chariots of Fire? It is a true story about two English men in the early twentieth century who were Olympic runners. Eric Liddell was a Christian who was also a runner. Harold Abrahams was a runner, that's it. That was who he was. In fact, that was his life. It was his identity.

Have you ever met someone, who wrapped up all that they were in baseball. Everything else took second place including God. Normally, not always, these players are kind of high strung, on edge, as if their life depended on going 3 for 3 because the big dogs were watching, or who have their whole identity so wrapped up in baseball that they obsess over their ERA. Every night tallying up the numbers to see where their numbers were. They are the ones who show up the shortstop who kicked the ball with two outs and as a result you gave up four runs and were pulled that same inning. They might act like team players, but deep down they are me-monsters, because baseball is their god and they don't like to disappoint their god. By the way, I am all up in this illustration as many of you know. This was Harold Abrahams. This was the opposite of Eric Liddell.

Back to the story. There was a point in the movie where Harold said that his next ten seconds were going to define his life. He was about to run the hundred in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Everything about who he was was riding on those next ten seconds. What a tragedy! Do you think he enjoyed the journey? No way! He was probably a wreck!

Now let's look at my man Eric Liddell. Eric, by the way, refused to run on Sundays, which cost him medals and his reputation. Anyways, Eric's sister was a missionary in China and was annoyed that Eric would waste his time running. She knew he was called to the mission field in China, so one day she had had enough and confronted Eric about this. She asked him (my paraphrase), "why in the world are you fooling around with this kid's stuff when there are kingdom things to be done?"

Listen to Eric's words and let them sink deep within your soul (actual quote), "God made me fast, and when I run I feel God's pleasure." One of the greatest quotes of all time! How did Eric reach the highest level of track & field and win a gold and a silver medal? Because in his life God was God and running was just a means to bring Him glory and pleasure.

May all of you who are still playing get to the point where you can say, "God made me a pitcher, and when I pitch I feel God's pleasure." "God made me a hitter, and when I hit I feel God's pleasure." May all the rest of us get to that same point in whatever God has gifted us to do.