“When I run I feel His pleasure.”

-Eric Liddell’s Character in Chariots of Fire. (Though, as I found out today, not actually a quote from the real Eric Liddell)

I had running on the brain today, since tomorrow I’m running my first half marathon. So as I wandered through various people that I wasn’t prepared to write about yet. I remembered that quote from Chariots of fire which led on a roundabout chase to everything and nothing.

So here’s what I have for today.

Eric Liddell. He was an olympian athlete and later a missionary to China. The year he competed in the Paris Olympics his strongest distance, the 100m, was scheduled for a Sunday. He never ran races on Sundays because he wanted to honor them as a day of rest. So he withdrew and instead competed in the 400m event later that week. And he won. According to this source he held this verse in his hand while he ran that 400:

1 Samuel 2:30 – “Those who honour me I will honour.”

And apparently he wrote a book! The Disciplines of the Christian Life And now I want to read it :)

John Piper is well known for phrase Christian Hedonism (this is a super interesting article if you have time to read it
!). In his words, summarized:

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Or: The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever.”
– John Piper

To put it very simplisticly (and I’m probably missing something): we are here to glorify God and when we are our happiest we are glorifying God because God is the one who makes us to be happy. It’s kind of like a never-ending circle of happys.
Another quote from the article I linked to above:

“By Christian Hedonism, I do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. I mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end. But almost all Christians believe this. Christian Hedonism says more, namely, that we should pursue happiness, and pursue it with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy you cannot love man or please God – that’s what makes Christian Hedonism controversial.”

But do you see the connection between the Chariots of Fire quote and Christian Hedonism?

What do you think about Christian Hedonism? Do you think what makes us truly happy is glorifying to God?

Can we honestly just pursue our own happiness or does our sinful nature get in the way?
—–

Find me on facebook or twitter!