When I run, I feel His pleasure

On the plane from Malaysia, I got the chance to watch the classic (Academy-award winning) 1981 film, Chariots of Fire. Chariots of Fire is the true story of the British track team for the 1924 Olympics, focusing in particular on Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddel, the gold medalists for the 100m and the 400m respectively.

Liddel is a missionary to China who puts off his work for a few years to train and compete in the Olympics. He discovers that the heats for the 100m (his best event) is going to be held on a Sunday. As he believes that running on the Sabbath would be dishonoring God, Liddel drops out of the 100m, to the horror of his team-mates and the British Olympic committee. The British contestant for the 400m offers to trade places with him, and Liddel manages a shock win in the event, despite not having had the opportunity to train for the 400m.

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There are two compelling scenes that make Liddel an especially compelling character for me. Firstly, his sister is very upset at him at first for neglecting his ministry work at their church because he spends so much time training for the Olympics. Liddel responds to her with what I feel is the best line of the film:

"I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure. "

Sometimes my friends disapprove of me investing so much in math, given how useless it is. I've had Christian friends tell me that I should do something that 'builds the kingdom'.

I know God made me for a purpose far greater than to be a mathematician, But in all humility, He made me freakishly good at math. And working on math makes me feel happy. When I'm working, even on a mundane homework problem I feel His peace, I feel his pleasure.

And although I disagree with the assertion that math has no practical application, I can, at least say for certain that it is more useful than running around a track.

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I'm also deeply compelled by the very idea of skipping the Olympics, in an event you've been training for for years and years and are expected to win. Liddel got a lot of criticism from his team officials, the press, and the Prince of Wales for his decision, and stuck with it.

Frankly, I've been around a lot of devout Christians, but I don't know anyone who has taken the fourth commandment as seriously as Liddel did. Even Christian Radio stations, like KLTY over in Dallas-Fort Worth operate on Sundays.

I tried intermittently to put off work on Sundays a few years ago. I also made a more sustained effort this past academic year. I would start from Sunset on Saturday night to Sunset on Sunday, and devote that time exclusively to Church, prayer, and (casual) reading, and swimming (I'm thinking of disallowing swimming though). This isn't proof of anything, but I've gotten a perfect 4.0 (i.e. A's in all my classes) since I started doing this seriously.

I wasn't always faithful to doing this, and I think I want to make a more sustained effort this year. I think my good friend Jason put it well when he noted that we take the other 9 commandments seriously, so why not this one?

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Here's a clip of the movie, one of the closing scenes.