{"id":5659,"date":"2026-08-19T08:25:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5659"},"modified":"2026-08-19T08:25:40","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T12:25:40","slug":"runners-in-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/19\/runners-in-the-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Runners in the Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each day this month of August we\u2019ll be looking at one of the extraordinary metaphors that the Bible uses to illustrate the nature of our relationship with God.<\/em>


\u201cDo you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize\u201d <\/em>(I Corinthians 9:24).

It\u2019s called the Goldman Dilemma.

During the 1970s and 80s, physician Robert M. Goldman and researcher Gabe Mirkin asked a number of elite athletes \u2013 U.S Olympians and Olympic hopefuls \u2013 to consider a provocative scenario:

\u201cYou are offered a banned performance-enhancing substance, with two guarantees: (1) You will not get caught, and (2) You will win.\u00a0Would you take the substance?\u201d\u00a0

A majority of the athletes said Yes.\u00a0

The same respondents were offered a second scenario:\u00a0\u201cYou are offered a banned performance-enhancing substance, with two guarantees: (1) You will not get caught, and (2) You will win every competition you enter for the next five years, after which you will die from the side effects of the substance.\u00a0Would you take it?\u201d\u00a0

According to Goldman, more than half the athletes said Yes to that proposition as well.

Recent research, fortunately, has demonstrated a shift in attitudes. Far fewer athletes these days appear willing to risk their integrity, their health, and their most important relationships for a few brief moments of glory.\u00a0 But no one doubts that there always have been, and always will be, athletes who consider winning a life-or-death proposition.

That tension is on display in an unusual British film that won the 1981 Academy Award for Best Picture. It\u2019s a movie we\u2019ve explored on several occasions in the past. It had no sex, no car chases, no spaceships, and no Kevin Bacon. It was called Chariots of Fire<\/em>.\u00a0

The movie portrays the events leading up to the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, in which the British track and field team unveiled two runners of exceptional talent but startlingly different motivations.

Harold Abrahams, a Jew of Lithuanian heritage, feels snubbed by the power structures of the day.\u00a0At every turn he has to prove himself. The rage inside him compels him to train harder and run faster than any man he knows.\u00a0

\u201cRunning is an addiction, a compulsion,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cIt is a weapon.\u201d\u00a0He admits that he needs to win the Olympics to justify his own existence.\u00a0Even after winning the gold medal in the 100 meters, making him the so-called Fastest Man Alive, he feels strangely alone and unfulfilled.\u00a0Contentment eludes him.

Eric Liddell, a Scottish sprinter, was expected to be Abrahams\u2019 primary competition.\u00a0But the qualifying trials for the 100 meters were scheduled for Sunday.\u00a0Because of his spiritual convictions, Liddell refused to run on the Sabbath, thus surrendering his chance to compete.

To observers around the world, this seemed like madness. Why throw away your best chance for glory?

Liddell is unfazed by public opinion.\u00a0He decides to run in the 400 meters, even though he has competed at that distance only four times in his life.

The experts give him no chance to win.\u00a0He isn\u2019t trained.\u00a0He\u2019s used to short bursts, not middle length grinds. His American competitors dismiss him out of hand. \u201cAfter 300 meters, rigor mortis sets in.\u201d

His running style, to put it gently, is absurd.\u00a0He breaks every aerodynamic rule.\u00a0His arms flail.\u00a0He even sometimes throws back his head and looks upward <\/em>while running (note the archival photo above). He just can\u2019t help himself.

But for Eric Liddell, running is an act of joy.

It is an explosive release of gratitude that is deep inside him.\u00a0Liddell doesn\u2019t need a gold medal to justify his existence.\u00a0He already knows who he is.

The son of Scottish missionary parents, he is on his way to China where he himself will be a mission worker, and where he will ultimately become a prisoner in a detention camp during Japan\u2019s occupation of the country. There he will die while pouring out his life for others.

His sister Jenny doesn\u2019t know why he bothers with athletic competition.

\u201cJenny,\u201d he explains, in the film\u2019s signature line, \u201cI believe God made me for a purpose \u2013 for China.\u00a0But he also made me fast.\u00a0And when I run, I feel his pleasure.\u201d\u00a0

Competing against the best 400-meter runners in the world, Liddell throws back his head and wins the gold. Here\u2019s how Chariots of Fire <\/em>depicts the climactic race<\/a>. Notice that he completes the event while holding in his hand a crumpled note of encouragement he\u2019s given just before the starter\u2019s gun.

Nineteen centuries earlier, the apostle Paul proposed athletic training as a metaphor for the Christ-pursuing life. He apparently was well acquainted with the Greek tradition of competitive games, since he observes in I Corinthians 9:24-27:

\u201cDo you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.\u201d<\/em>

We may presume that Paul was as serious about keeping himself in \u201cplaying shape\u201d spiritually as any rookie currently trying to win a place on an NFL roster.

But the rewards could not have been more different.

The winner of an ancient footrace received a crown of laurel leaves. They soon became brown and dry.

Paul, on the other hand, as he approaches the end of life, declares, \u201cI have fought the fight, <\/em>I have run the race<\/em><\/strong>, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day\u2014and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing”<\/em> (2 Timothy 4:7-8).

Suffice it say that the crown God provides lasts forever.

What practice or pastime or habit of the heart \u2013 whether singing or painting or organizing fundraisers or teaching or gardening or mentoring teenagers or restocking the food bank or comforting the sick or any number of other activities \u2013 so fills your soul with joy that you feel your Creator\u2019s pleasure?

Keep at it. Practice diligently. Choose to excel.

As Paul puts it, \u201cRun in such a way as to get the prize\u201d \u2013 the prize of hearing God say, \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant.\u201d

That\u2019s what it means to win the contest that really matters.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Each day this month of August we\u2019ll be looking at one of the extraordinary metaphors that the Bible uses to illustrate the nature of our relationship with God. \u201cDo you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1171,1159,1170],"class_list":["post-5659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-athletes","tag-metaphors","tag-running"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5661,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5659\/revisions\/5661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}