Complete Surrender

“Not my will, but yours, be done.” —Luke 22:42

In the 1924 Paris Olympics, a twenty-two-year- old Scottish athlete made headlines when he determined to say “no” to self and “yes” to God. Eric Liddell dropped out of his best event—the 100-yard dash—because the qualifying heats were held on a Sunday.

Subsequently, he entered himself in the 400-yard dash, a race for which he had not trained. He ran the race, finishing five yards ahead of his nearest competitor and setting a new world record. However, that Olympic gold medal was far from his greatest accomplishment.

After the Olympics, Eric served in China as a missionary. In 1943 he was interned in a Japanese concentration camp but continued to serve God and joyfully minister to other prisoners. While still in the camp, Eric suffered a brain tumor that left him partially paralyzed.

Eric Liddell’s life is a powerful call to say “no” to self and “yes” to God. As he lay dying, struggling to breathe and moving in and out of conscious- ness, he managed to breathe his final words to the nurse by his side: “It’s complete surrender.”