Pleasure in Knowing Jesus
Chariots of Fire, the acclaimed 1981 film and winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, is based on real-life Olympic runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell. Liddell was the son of missionaries to China and was, himself, a devout Christian. In the 1924 Paris Olympic games, Liddell withdrew from his best event, the 100-meter race, because the race was to be held on Sunday. Instead, he trained for and ran the 400-meter, surprising everyone when he won gold in a record-setting time.
Eric Liddell had an unorthodox running style but an undeniable gift of speed. For Liddell, running was a gift from God that he used for God, and, in so doing, he found joy in God. All of this is captured well in the movie's depiction of his record-setting race. On the final stretch, he transitions to his distinctive ugly running style with his head tilted back, mouth open, and arms flailing, as we hear him say in a voice over, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure."
As an Olympic gold medalist, Eric Liddell knew better than most what it means to run a race and to "press on toward the goal for the prize," which is the language Paul employs in Philippians 3:14. As gifted as Liddell was as a runner and as much as he found God-centered pleasure in running, Liddell also knew, as a born-again believer, that there is a much greater race that we are called to run. Liddell is also quoted as saying,
"It has been a wonderful experience to compete in the Olympic Games and to bring home a gold medal. But since I have been a young lad, I have had my eyes on a different prize. You see, each one of us is in a greater race than any I have run in Paris, and this race ends when God gives out the medals."
After the Olympic games, Liddell served as a missionary in China. Despite the dangers, he remained in China during World War II and eventually died from a brain tumor while in a Japanese internment camp mere months before the end of the war in 1945.
In Pastor Ben’s message on Sunday, he preached on the Priority, Pursuit, and Patience in Knowing Jesus. If we were to infuse Liddell's perspective into Paul's running imagery to describe his pursuit of Jesus in Philippians 3:12-16, perhaps a fourth "P" would be added: Pleasure in Knowing Jesus.
A wife who is loved well will pursue her husband, not to get him, because she already has him, but to get more of him. She already knows the joy of having her husband and his love. Yet, she knows that it can become something beyond what it is now, so she pursues the prize of having more of what she already has. In the same way, Paul is calling us, the bride of Christ, to strive for more of the joy we have in Christ while holding onto the hope of joy in the prize of being with him in fullness when our race is over.
Paul knew well the joy of the Christian life, which is evident in Philippians 1:21, where he says, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." If we, too, will "think this way" (3:15), we will find that Eric Liddell's words ring true for us as our singular focus in the race of life becomes our pursuit of Christ: When I run, I feel his pleasure.
~ Andy Barker grew up in Boston, Ma. and relocated to Charlotte in 2008. He currently serves as an elder at LIFE Fellowship. He and his wife Melanie have five children and have attended LIFE Fellowship for ten years.