Passing the Baton

In the Paris Olympics of 1924 Eric Liddell broke the world record and won a gold medal for the 400 metres race. The year after that he went to China as a missionary and taught in a Christian school. But when hostilities broke out between Japan and China, Eric sent his wife and children to Canada. He himself stayed to help his brother who was a doctor in a medical mission for the poor. When the Japanese invaded China, they put Eric in a civilian internment camp.

Fourteen-year-old Steve Metcalf was at school in China when the Japanese invaded. They shut the school and sent everyone to the internment camp. That was where Steve met Eric Liddell, who was leading a Bible class in the camp. Steve began to understand that Eric not only loved the Bible, but lived out its teaching, whatever the circumstances. Eric gave the greatest challenge to Steve – “You should pray for the Japanese.”

Steve wondered whether it was really possible to pray for the Japanese who had put them in this wretched prison and stood guard over them with guns. But Eric pointed to Matthew 5:43 which says, “Love your enemies,” and “Pray for those who persecute you.” He said, “Jesus told us to pray for those we don’t like. When you hate, you are self-centred. When you pray, you are God-centred. Praying changes your attitude. It is hard to hate those you pray for.”

Jesus also said, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:15).

Eric died from a brain tumour, aged forty-three. Three weeks before, he had given his running shoes to Steve. The following Saturday Steve wore those shoes as he helped carry Eric’s coffin. There at the graveside he picked up the baton Eric had held out - the baton of forgiveness. He told God that, if he made it out of the camp alive, he would go to Japan as a missionary.

Six months later, in August 1945, Japan surrendered and liberation came to Steve after almost four years of captivity. Two years later, he heard General MacArthur on the radio talking about the need for the gospel in Japan. The words struck him with all the force of God Himself speaking. He could not ignore the message, and he went to Japan as a missionary.

While I lived in Japan, I was so impressed by how many missionaries from America there were. One whom I met had been shot in the throat while fighting in Okinawa Island, and could only speak in a hoarse whisper. Yet he had answered the call to go back to Japan as soon as the war finished, and he was spending his life as a missionary to the Japanese.