Running a Lasting Race

Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize. Now everyone who competes exercises self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable crown. So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified. I Corinthians 9:24-27 CSB

Stephen Nedoroscik had one job to do in this year’s Olympics and he nailed it. The bespectacled engineer who can solve a Rubik’s Cube in under ten seconds (that is amazing to me) mounted the pommel horse and delivered a near-flawless routine, giving the USA men’s team its first medal in 16 years. Though he found only one gymnastics event that he could master, he did it!

Throughout the day, Nedoroscik spent time encouraging and bringing water to his teammates and cheering on every performance; finally, it was his turn. “Nedoroscik was the last athlete to compete on the team’s last rotation. He needed to hit his routine for the Americans to end a 16-year medal drought…And then, like Clark Kent turning into Superman, he took off his jacket, removed his glasses, and puffed out his chest—and He killed it!” (Whitney Fleming)

The Paris Olympics showcases the wins and the losses, the best of individuals, and the controversies. Simone Biles will leave the Olympics as the most decorated American gymnast ever, Katie Ledecky’s gold medal in her impressive win in the 1,500-meter freestyle tied the record for most medals for an American woman in swimming, and yet Caeleb Dressel failed to qualify in the same event where he won gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

The Olympics brings together thousands of young athletes representing scores of nations. National pride is intertwined with sportsmanship and common purpose. Paul Emory Putz writes, “Sports matter to us in large part because of the cultural narratives that give them significance. It’s not just that athletes run, jump, reach, and throw with remarkable skill. It’s that those bodily movements are fashioned and framed into broader webs of meaning that help us make sense of the world around us—both what is and what ought to be.”

Over the coming week, there will be more victories, more defeats, and lots of upsets. Some of the Olympians will leave with a medal but the vast majority will leave with only memories. Sports history will record the names and times of event participants yet life will record those who took their perishable crown and turned it into something imperishable.

Paris 2024 marks the 100^th anniversary of Eric Liddell running in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Liddell was one of those who took his perishable medal and turned it into something far greater. You may remember him from the movie, Chariots of Fire and his determined stance to not run his race on the Sabbath even as he faced pressure from the British Olympic committee, and fellow athletes and was ridiculed by the press for his refusal. Though he didn’t get to run in his preferred 100 meters event, he was able to run in the much longer 400 meters. 47.6 seconds later, Liddell set a new world record and earned a gold medal.

The movie ended with only a postscript of what would become his truly defining moment. He gave up possible future medals and athletic achievements to board a ship with his young family to follow God’s call to serve in China. It would be there that he would serve others to the very end of his life, dying in a war camp at 43. Duncan Hamilton in his biography of Liddell wrote, “Liddell ran—and lived—for the glory of God…Once imprisoned, Liddell did what he was born to do: practice his faith and his sport. He became the moral center of an unbearable world, counseling many of the other prisoners, giving up his own meager portion of meals for many days, and organizing games for the children there.”

When Liddell was asked, what is the point of continuing to pray—for food, for comfort, for rescue—when those prayers aren’t being answered? Joe Cotterill, his close friend said, “Liddell’s own belief never wavered but also how he reassured those who had doubts. His faith grew stronger than ever in such troubled times. He didn’t blame God for the situation we were all in. he believed God was in that situation with us. That was his message and he never stopped preaching it. He’d say to us all ‘Have Faith.’” (Duncan Hamilton, For the Glory)

Though most of us may never stand on the Olympic podium to receive a medal, each of us has been given defining moments that will be our platforms to make a difference. Our defining moments may come in an encouraging whisper to a friend, a midnight call to reassure someone, or a lonely stance for what we believe.  Whatever you do, let it be to God’s glory.

“David Ireland, diagnosed with a crippling neurological disease that would eventually take his life, was frequently asked, “Do you believe God will heal you?” He would respond with a question of his own: “Do I really need to be healed?” Ireland explained his thinking:

I’m firmly convinced that God is extremely good and that He does love and understand all the world and all the people in it. Does He want to heal me? I can’t even answer that. My faith is in the genuineness of God, not in whether He will do this or that to demonstrate His goodness…That’s not the nature of my relationship to God.” (James Emery White, Church and Culture)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

God is great!