We are all blessed with gifts and talents. In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) the master gives each of the servants what he thinks they are able to deal with. He does not give them any instructions about what to do with the talents because he assumes they know what is expected of them, but he is disappointed in the servant who hides the money because he has not made the best of what he is given. Of course in the time of Jesus a ‘talent’ was a large amount of money. But the parable is not just about money. God gives us gifts and talents to use freely, but he expects us to use them well.

This month, those that excel in sport from around the globe will compete in London at the Olympic Games. We will witness and wonder at the talents of the athletes as Olympic history is made. The opening and closing ceremonies will further showcase the talents of performers, presenters, artists and the architects of both the physical spaces, and that which will go on inside them. Recent Olympic history has given us Steve Ovett and Seb Coe, Carl Lewis, Cathy Freeman, Steve Redgrave, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. They are among the Olympians who personify the message of sport – never to give up.

Eric’s decision to sacrifice his strong chance of winning the 'blue ribbon' 100 metres sprint, because the competition schedule clashed with his Christian beliefs: he refused to run on a Sunday

Eric Liddell made sporting history in the Paris Olympics in 1924 where he won the 400 metres race in 47.6 seconds. The BBC Scotland website says that, ‘Without doubt one of Scotland’s greatest sporting heroes, Eric Liddell, owes much of his fame more to a race he didn’t run than any he did’, referring to Eric’s decision to sacrifice his strong chance of winning the ‘blue ribbon’ 100 metres sprint, because the competition schedule clashed with his Christian beliefs: he refused to run on a Sunday. Eric was born in China in 1902. His parents were Scottish Missionaries. His achievement and the religious convictions that influenced him are portrayed in the film Chariots of Fire (1981), and have been an inspiration to many over the years. ‘God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure’ is a line often attributed to Liddell, but actually written by Colin Welland as part of his script for the film. To some extent it doesn’t matter that Eric didn’t say this in as many words, the sentiment is accurate. Eric lived out the Gospel values, using the talents God had given him. He was motivated in all areas of his life, including his sport, to honour and glorify Christ. The point is that when we use our talents to serve and glorify God, we share with him a sense of pleasure and fulfilment. There is certain mutuality here, blessed with the talents God has given us, we have the opportunity to achieve something with him: ‘Them that honour me, I will honour’ (1 Samuel 2:30).

Harold M Abrahams and Eric Liddell were like the Ovett and Coe of their day; British runners and rivals on the track. Harold said Eric ‘was a man whose intense spiritual convictions contributed largely to his athletic triumphs. While his ability must have been great, but for his profound intensity of spirit he surely could not have achieved so much’. FAM Webster titled his obituary for Eric Liddell, ‘More than an athlete’. Eric was an athlete, a Christian and a missionary. But he did not see these roles as distinct. He was motivated by principles and disciplines rooted in the Bible. During his visit to the UK in 2010 Pope Benedict XVI highlighted Blessed John Henry Newman’s teaching that there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. Faith isn’t something we do, it is who we are. This is something Eric Liddell epitomised. According to DP Thomson, Eric Liddell’s first biographer, ‘There were some who said, and very many more who feared, that Eric’s participation in evangelistic work might have an adverse effect on his running. Apart from anything else, an additional interest and activity of such an absorbing kind might impede his progress as an athlete…’ 

In fact, ‘In the three months immediately following his open confession of Christ, and his emergence as an evangelist, Eric ran more brilliantly and achieved greater distinction as a sprinter than in all the years that had gone before’. When asked whether he had ever prayed that he would win a race, Eric replied ‘No… I have, of course, prayed about the athletic meetings, asking that in this, too, God might be glorified’.

Eric was an athlete, a Christian and a missionary. But he did not see these roles as distinct. He was motivated by principles and disciplines rooted in the BibleAbrahams watched the 400 metres final from the stands, ‘Liddell had the outside lane. From the start he ran like a man inspired. He set off at a pace which looked so ludicrously fast that we expected him to crack when the home straight was reached. But he seemed to maintain it right to the finish and he won by yards and yards in the new Olympic record time of 47.6. Every muscle of his body seemed to be working overtime in his wild rush to supreme victory.’ In the film version of the race, Liddell was inspired to run like this by a note handed to him by Jackson Scholz, one of the American runners, immediately before the race in support for his convictions. John W Keddie casts doubt on this, noting that the idea of Eric holding the piece of paper as he ran as inaccurate, and commenting that in fact even in Chariots of Fire there are lapses in continuity; some of the filmed sequences of the final show Liddell clutching the note, others do not! Keddie offers an alternative account in which one of the masseurs at the British team headquarters hands a note to Eric on the morning of the race, which read, ‘In the old book it says, ‘He that honours me I will honour.’ Wishing you the best of success always’. It was a reference to Eric’s decision not to run on Sundays, and based on 1 Samuel 2:30.

In the three months immediately following his open confession of Christ, and his emergence as an evangelist, Eric ran more brilliantly and achieved greater distinction as a sprinter than in all the years that had gone before

Asked about the secret of his success in track athletics Eric answered, ‘it’s the three sevens…the seventh book of the New Testament, seventh chapter, and seventh verse: ‘But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that.’ The first two servants in the parable used their talents and made them work, doubling their investments. But the third servant buried his talent. He didn’t try and make use of it. The master chastises the third servant, not for the lack of returns, but more for laziness and lack of effort. We might not have the same gift as others, or the same success, but we are asked to make an effort with what we have been given. As Eric Liddell said, ‘In the dust of defeat as well as the laurels of victory there is a glory to be found if one has done his best.’