Eric Liddell Runs for Something Greater Than Gold

The roar of the Paris crowd was enormous. Thousands had come to watch the 1924 Olympics, and everyone expected Eric Liddell to run the hundred meters. He was the fastest man in Britain. But Eric had made a decision that stunned the world. The hundred-meter race was scheduled for a Sunday. Eric believed Sunday was a day set apart for God. He would not run — not even for an Olympic gold medal. Newspapers called him foolish. Officials pressured him to change his mind. One British lord handed him a note backstage that read, "Those who honor me, I will honor." It was a verse from the Bible. Eric read it quietly and nodded. He had already made up his mind. Instead, Eric entered the four-hundred-meter race — a longer, punishing distance he had barely trained for. On the morning of the final, he stood at the starting line. His legs felt tight. The stadium hummed with noise. A trainer pressed a small paper into his hand. Written on it were seven words: "In the old book it says, He that honors me, I will honor." Eric tucked the note into his palm and took his mark. The gun cracked. Eric ran like a man on fire. Arms pumping, head thrown back, he crossed the finish line first — setting a new world record of 47.6 seconds. But that was not the end of Eric's story. He soon sailed to China as a missionary, teaching children in the countryside and caring for the sick. He stayed even when war came, and he never stopped sharing hope with everyone around him. Eric Liddell once said that when he ran, he felt God's pleasure. He chose something harder than gold — and he never looked back.