Eric Liddell's Holy Sprint

In 1924, Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell arrived at the Paris Olympics as the favorite in the 100 meters. Then he discovered the heats fell on a Sunday. Liddell withdrew, stunning the British press, who called him a traitor. He had trained for years, sculpted every muscle for that singular moment — and he walked away from it.

But Liddell did not see his body as his own. He understood something the sportswriters could not grasp: that his legs, his lungs, his speed — all of it belonged to the God who made him. So he entered the 400 meters instead, a race he had barely trained for. Before the starting gun, a teammate slipped a note into his hand. It read, "Those who honor Me, I will honor."

Liddell won gold that day and set a world record.

What made Eric Liddell extraordinary was not his speed. It was his clarity about ownership. Paul told the Corinthians, "You are not your own; you were bought at a price." Every ability, every breath, every fiber of muscle belongs to the One who purchased us. Liddell grasped what so many believers forget — that honoring God with our bodies is not a restriction. It is the very thing we were made for. When he crossed that finish line, he later said, "I felt God's pleasure."

The question is not what your body can do. It is who your body belongs to.