Running When God Says Wait

In the spring of 1924, Eric Liddell received news that would have crushed most Olympic hopefuls. The 100-meter heats at the Paris Games were scheduled for a Sunday. Liddell, Scotland's fastest man and the heavy favorite, quietly withdrew from the race. He would not run on the Lord's Day.

The British Olympic Committee pressured him. The Prince of Wales tried to persuade him. Teammates questioned his judgment. The press called him a traitor to his country. But Liddell had settled the matter long before Paris. Obedience to the Almighty was not something he negotiated when the stakes got high — it was the foundation everything else stood on.

What happened next stunned the world. Liddell entered the 400 meters instead, an event he had barely trained for. On July 11, 1924, he ran with his head tilted back and his arms pumping wildly — not textbook form by any measure — and crossed the finish line in 47.6 seconds, a world record. Gold medal.

But here is what matters for us this morning. Liddell did not obey God because he knew a gold medal was waiting. He obeyed when every visible outcome pointed toward loss. The reward came after the obedience, not before.

That is how it works in the kingdom. God does not show us the finish line first. He says, "Trust Me and run." And when we do, we discover that His path was faster and truer than anything we could have mapped on our own.