It's to Honor the Lord
I was delighted to receive this photo from a dear friend who snapped it in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. I’ve been so busy posting about SuperCentennial Celebrations that I’ve watched three anniversaries go sailing by like the Flying Scotsman:
July 6
* 102nd anniversary of Eric Liddell preaching at the Scots Kirk while famously not running in the 100m qualifying heat because that year it fell on a Sunday
* 2nd anniversary of Beyond the Chariots at the Scots Kirk in Paris
July 11
* 102nd anniversary of Eric Liddell breaking the world record in the 400m
* 2nd anniversary of Beyond the Chariots at the Eric Liddell Community and Morningside United Church (where Eric taught Sunday School) in Edinburgh
July 13
* 102nd anniversary of Eric skipping the relay heats and preaching at the Scots Kirk
* 2nd anniversary of Joyce and I traveling from Edinburgh to Kilsyth, Scotland, for a performance set up on the 6th
Li Airui was what the Chinese would call him. I think Li was for Liddell, since Chinese family names are one syllable and come before their given names. Airui is an easier way for them to say, “Eric,” since names in that region of China (near Beijing) typically begin with a consonant and end in a vowel. His amah called him “Nellie!”
Tonight’s #ScriptureInTheNight certainly fits Eric Liddell, pointing to Heaven (literally) with every step, and, as the paragraph at the end of Chariots of Fire eulogized: “Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All of Scotland mourned.” Those two sentences drew me into telling that part of his story: www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/BeyondTheChariots.
www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/InterpretingTheTimes
What follows is from my #WhatScriptureSaysAboutLove series, which is explained at www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/WhatScriptureSaysAboutLove.
רָחַם [ra-CHAM] verb.
4/45
…then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.
— Deuteronomy 30:3 NAS95
Lord, give the world Your loving compassion toward Your Chosen People.
Harold Abrahams is the other main character in Chariots of Fire. He was Jewish and the film showed him using his sprinting prowess to overcome antisemitism. The panel in Galashiels quotes him commenting on Eric’s odd running: “People may shout their heads off about his appalling style. Well, let them. He gets there!”
