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!”

I was blessed to see an original, hand-written copy of Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence. He wrote several copies so people could see what Congress had done to it. I read part of his paragraph denouncing slavery in SuperCentennial Celebrations (keeping his use of ALL CAPS): 

“He...

     (to AUDIENCE)

...being King George...

     (reading)

“...has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain, determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold.” 

     (to AUDIENCE)

I went on to write how every law passed by our people to set the slaves free was stricken down by King George. Sadly Georgia and South Carolina delegates refused to sign the Declaration unless I took that out. Did you know the Carolinas are named after King George’s great great great uncle, Charles the First, and Georgia was named after the grandfather of King George? That may lead you to some prayer direction. We felt it was important that we had unanimous agreement on the Declaration, but it was one of the saddest moments of the whole process. In the Year of Our Lord Christ 1769 when I served in the Virginia House of Burgesses I made one effort for the permission of the emancipation of slaves, which was rejected. Most believed it was our duty to be subordinate to the mother country in all matters of government. Many of us wanted to abolish slavery in our Constitution when we wrote that in the year of our Lord Christ 1787, but South Carolina said they would secede and take Georgia and North Carolina with them. That would have meant that British soldiers would have been welcomed to our shores to prepare to attack us in the North. We decided it was better for us to be a truly “United States of America” and to put off the issue of slavery for 21 years. That’s seven years from now, and it’s my earnest prayer that everyone in our nation will be free. God has no attribute that could take sides with the oppressor in such a contest, and the hour of emancipation is advancing; in the march of time, it will come.

You can see more of the monologue at www.RichDrama.com/blog (7/9/26).

Sadly we kept pushing the issue of slavery off until war, famine, and disease devoured us. 

Lord, may we turn back to You and away from the issues of our day that break Your heart, while there is time. 

What follows is from my #WhatScriptureSaysAboutLove series, which is explained at www.RichDrama.com/blog/post/WhatScriptureSaysAboutLove.

 ‎ אָהֵב [ʾāhēb] v. 

218 uses in 202 verses 

Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the LORD which He loves and has married the daughter of a foreign god.

— Malachi 2:11 NAS95 

May we turn away from foreign gods while there is time!