Show yourself in all respects
to be a model of good works.
—Titus 2:7
If you’ve seen Chariots of Fire you know the inspiring story of Eric Liddell, who broke the world record and won the gold in the 400-meter competition in the 1924 Paris Olympics.
Here’s the rest of the story.
After the Olympics, Eric went to Tianjin, China to work as a teacher/missionary. In 1943 he was imprisoned by the Japanese in the Weihsien Internment Camp, where he died in 1945, at age forty-three. A memorial monument on the grounds of the former prison camp pays tribute to Liddell, saying his “life was spent encouraging young people to make their best contribution to the betterment of mankind.”
Your encouragement is worth more than gold to those whose lives you’re touching. You will continue to influence them long after you are gone.
You may never know who you
inspired, or when, or how.