"Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." ----Matthew 16:24-25
His "chariot of fire" carried him from Olympic glory to this place, a bed in a Japanese prisoner of war camp deep inside China during WWII. Even here, where life was marked by deprivation, exhaustion and, for him, a brain tumor, Eric Liddell lived by two words: "Complete surrender."
They were the words he chose to describe why he raced, as crowds celebrated his Olympic victory in 1924. They were also the words he used to explain why he was leaving fame behind to serve as a missionary in China.
"Complete surrender." Those were his words as he carried the Gospel by foot and bicycle to rural Chinese citizens even as Japanese troops were sweeping across the "land of the golden dawn". They were also, reportedly, his final words, spoken just before the tumor claimed his life in that dingy camp.
Like "the flying Scotsman", we who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ have enlisted in service to a Kingdom not easily understood by our coworkers or our culture. We, too, can be tempted away from sacrifice and service to a life lived for self; to think of ourselves as owners with rights instead of stewards with obligations.
Or we may find ourselves troubled by our circumstances, by the seeming insignificance of the tasks before us each day, or by the ambivalence the workplace has towards our faith. We sometimes wrestle with questions of calling; of significance; of faithfulness. We often struggle against the tendency to make our faith a private matter. We fight to find balance, to cope with stress, to treat difficult people the way we think Jesus would. We wonder if we should evangelize; we wonder if what we're doing matters; we wonder if we're even in the right place. Sometimes we covet; other times we simmer in the pride of self-achievement, briefly (or not so briefly) slipping away from the Christian's chief mission in life: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
We must not think God an easy task master. Scripture teaches He is not satisfied with anything less than complete surrender. This call for abandoned service, for unrestrained stewardship of His Kingdom assets, for sacrificial service to the people we meet each day, may rest heavy on our shoulders as we face the place where He's sent us to serve Him, but it is most assuredly the only path to the "peace that passes understanding" Paul teaches us to covet.
Most of the battles for the souls of those around us are not waged inside the walls of the church, but rather on the holy ground of the cubicle, and the sacred altar of the home. Though the church must surely equip us, restore us and strengthen us, it serves most nobly when it is a launching pad for the testimony of Jesus Christ to the people in the places God sends us outside its walls.
We have the privilege of running the same race Eric Liddell ran; to take the baton and carry it into the corners of the culture we inhabit. Someone once said the world has yet to see the impact one life can have if it's totally surrendered to Christ.
Surely, Eric Liddell was close. It's our turn now.
--Randy Kilgore
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