“I can feel God’s pleasure”

by Lance Bledsoe

There’s a great line from the 1981 movie “Chariots of Fire,” which is a dramatization of the life of the British Olympic sprinter Eric Liddell. At one point in the film, Liddell is trying to explain to someone why he enjoys running so much, and he’s having a hard time putting it into words. He finally says, “When I run, I can feel God’s pleasure.”

Anyone who’s ever been a runner, even a casual runner, knows that sometimes while running you will find that you have entered that place known as “the zone.” When you’re in the zone, everything feels effortless, and you just feel like you could run forever.

A few days ago I was running and I found myself in the zone, and I remembered Liddell’s quote about feeling God’s pleasure. It occurred to me that while Liddell was specifically referring to running, I like the quote even outside the context of running.

Liddell wasn’t so much declaring that running was somehow an especially holy or noble activity, though I suspect that for him it was. What he was commenting on was the fact that he had discovered a particular gift that God had given him, and when he made use of that gift, he knew that God was pleased. He could feel it. God had made him to run, and when he ran, he was perfectly in tune with the person God had created him to be.

I have known a number of people over the years who have discovered gifts that God had given them in different areas, some of which you might not think of as being particularly holy. Parents, teachers, artists, musicians, nature-lovers; I knew one woman who cleaned houses for a living, and she absolutely loved her work. It’s a wonderful feeling to discover a gift that God has given to you and to feel the pleasure of using that gift, not just the pleasure that it gives to you, but the pleasure that it gives to God, and often the pleasure that it gives to others.

Liddell’s comment about feeling God’s pleasure is also a wonderful way to think about being the people that God has made us to be. What gifts has God given to you, and how do you use them? When do you feel God’s pleasure?