Eric Henry Liddell.[120]
Florence couldn’t help but see that the last bit of correspondence had been dated the very day Eric entered eternal rest, the day he had somehow found the strength to walk to the post.
She reread the final correspondences from her husband, imagining him as he penned them, wrapped in the hope of their seeing each other again.
And so they would.
She slipped the letters back into the envelope they’d come in, then sat back in her chair and pondered the intimacies of the Master they shared.
And his promises. Each and every one.
[116] David McCasland, Eric Liddell: Pure Gold: A New Biography of the Olympic Champion Who Inspired Chariots of Fire (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House, 2001), 289–90.
[117] M. E. Breckenridge to Florence Liddell, unpublished letter, October 16, 1945.
[118] Eric Liddell to Florence Liddell, unpublished letter, August 24, 1944.
[119] Eric Liddell to Florence Liddell, unpublished letter, August 27, 1944.
[120] Eric Liddell to Florence Liddell, unpublished letter, February 21, 1945.
EPILOGUE
THE FINAL 100: THE RACE BEFORE US
WHILE SERVING AS A MISSIONARY, Eric received a letter from a friend in Britain inquiring what type of books he would like to be sent for him to read. Eric responded, “The kind of books I would like most would be, biographical. There are a lot of small books like that, biographies about great men. I think that kind of book always helps one most to do better.”
What Eric couldn’t have realized at the time was that he was becoming one of those “great men” or that his story would inspire countless others to indeed “do better”—to run the final race in such a way as to win a much greater prize.
Many have been inspired by Eric’s captivating life and ministry—including me. As an eight-year-old Christian possessing the same first name as that of the Flying Scotsman and sharing a zeal for running, I became an instant fanatic of Eric Liddell by watching Chariots of Fire. I thought the parallels ended there, yet at that time my race had barely begun. Amazingly enough, I also happened to run collegiately. I served in my church’s youth ministry, and I served as a missionary in China, where, like Eric, I met my wife. I went on to study theology and ultimately became a pastor and a writer.
As such, it has been one of the absolute highlights of my life to meet and communicate with some of Eric Liddell’s family, including his three daughters. I will never forget trading stories with them over lunch while looking into their eyes, which had once looked into his. Because I believe we need more people in the world who value the level of sacrifice, humility, integrity, and general churchmanship that Eric Liddell possessed, carrying the torch of his story is a particularly important leg of my race. His life pointed to Christ in a steady, unique, and powerful way, and perhaps, somewhere, there is another eight-year-old who needs to learn that.
The legacy of Eric Liddell is the legacy of all Christians—to run their own race of faith and to share that faith as best they can, passing the burning torch to the next runner. Each runner from generation to generation runs in his or her own way, as each Christian faces a unique set of circumstances.
Our final race is before us with a great prize realized within the forgiveness of sins and eternal life that abounds for all through the death and resurrection of Christ. The cost counted through the race of faith is entirely worth it, if for no other reason than to see a glimpse of the multitude of lives that are eternally saved by grace as a result along the way. Yet there are many hurdles we face and obstacles we need to train for, just as Eric did.
Eric Liddell’s many challenges would have been much more difficult had he not prepared for them. His early life in boarding school apart from his family prepared him for his missionary years separated from his wife and children. His reluctance to embrace fame enabled him to endure solitude on the mission field. His openness to other strains of Christian thought, particularly of the Oxford Group, gifted him with flexibility to loosen his rigid grip on legalism and ease tension in the internment camp. Eric didn’t always know how his decisions of the moment would impact the race he ran, but in each moment, by seeking to live a “God-controlled life,” he was able to run well even when he was surrounded by trouble and uncertainty.
Eric’s obedient witness of Christ’s grace serves as a reminder to us when we face our own times of increasing trouble and uncertainty. Through the strengthening of faith in Christ, we too are able to build our stamina and run with purpose toward the finish line of our own races. Every race demands training, and the race of our lives is no different. As the apostle Paul reminds us, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly” (1 Corinthians 9:25-26). An imperishable prize awaits those who run well. So just as Eric prepared—even without realizing it, by being fed in the faith and through his continual acts of faithfulness—let us “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).
And the man who ran so well and revered the Lord’s Sabbath rests with one last treasure of truth for us—the eternal eighth day Sabbath, which helps us prepare in our
