His Utmost
Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.
Oswald Chambers, Disciples Indeed
In March of 2003, Newsweek published an article about a powerful man who spent a part of each morning in private reading. Rising at dawn, he would set aside scores of documents, reports, and articles demanding his attention and instead pick up a book first published in 1927: My Utmost for His Highest. This powerful man was President George W. Bush.
In Christian circles, My Utmost for His Highest is well-known. Some contend that it is the most recognized book apart from the Bible. Millions of copies have been sold over the eight decades the work has been in print.
The odd thing is the content was never meant to be a book, and the author never saw the manuscript.
Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, on July 24, 1874, Oswald Chambers began his short, meaningful life. His father was a Baptist preacher, but young Chambers had his mind set on a more creative occupation. Gifted in the fine arts, Chambers pursued art and music at London’s Royal Academy of Art, but he did so with spiritual intent. Chambers saw his Christian ministry as portraying God’s truth through art.
It was not to be.
While continuing his studies at the University of Edinburg, Chambers began to question his purpose. Faith was central to his thinking, and he had made a profession of faith while in his middle teens. The great Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon was instrumental in his salvation. Chambers’ faith was too large for the confines of his plans. It appeared God had a different course in mind.
“Four Years of Hell on Earth”
Some assume that the great men and women of the church come to faith easily and live their days in full knowledge of what God wants for them and from them. That is seldom true. Chambers’ life shows that a good deal of spiritual wrestling is involved. During those months of searching, Chambers decided he had been called to preach. That decision led him to Dunoon College in Scotland for Bible training. We might expect those were days of joy, now that Chambers had found his purpose, but we’d be wrong. Chambers called that period of life “four years of hell on earth.”
The source of his turmoil was a profound awareness of his depravity and the feeling that his faith lacked power. Always an excellent student, he excelled in his work, but his soul languished. Difficult as it is to understand, this spiritual storm became the catalyst that made him the powerful man he would become. In desperation, he prayed, dependent on the biblical promise that God would give his Spirit to anyone who asked.
He received what he sought. In an instant, the unending storm of emotion settled, replaced by peaceful joy. “Glory be to God,” Chambers said after the event, “the last aching abyss of the human heart is filled to overflowing with the love of God.”1 He would later call this event his baptism in the Spirit. There are various meanings to that phrase, but for Chambers it meant he had been fully accepted by Christ.
From Classroom to World
It wasn’t long before Chambers was on the preaching circuit. The thin man with high cheekbones, a full head of hair, an aquiline nose, and piercing eyes became a sought-after speaker. He became a traveling preacher for the Pentecostal League of Prayer, an organization founded in 1891 by British barrister Reader Harris. The Pentecostal League of Prayer emphasized prayer, infilling of the Holy Spirit, holiness, and revival in the churches.
But Chambers wasn’t satisfied with preaching messages and then leaving for the next church. He believed the spiritual mediocrity prevalent in his day was rooted in lazy thinking. In 1911, he, along with the League of Prayer, opened the Bible Training College. He served the school as head teacher and principal. He had moved from being a spiritually confused artist to preacher, teacher, and head of a college.
Called into Egypt
Three years later, World War I erupted in Europe, a conflict that would last four years and take the lives of nearly ten million military personnel and wound another twenty-one million. Shortly after the battle started, Chambers felt called to serve in the war effort. He became a chaplain to British Commonwealth soldiers in Egypt.
Chambers had already been a world traveler, having ministered in the United States and Japan. He sailed to Zeitoun (Cairo), Egypt, in October of 1915, and as a YMCA chaplain ministered to Australian and New Zealand soldiers preparing for battle elsewhere in the world. Many of these soldiers would become one of the half million casualties in the Battle of Gallipoli in what is now Turkey. Some of the last spiritual encouragement those men received came from the lips of Oswald Chambers.
Chambers died in the city on November 15, 1917 from complications of appendicitis. He had suffered for three days, but delayed medical attention, not wanting to take a bed that might otherwise go to a soldier. He was just forty-three years old.
Biddy, Oswald Chambers’ Secret Weapon
During a teaching trip to the United States, Chambers met Gertrude “Biddy” Hobbs. They married in 1910, and three years later Biddy gave birth to a baby girl named Kathleen. Kathleen was the only child the couple would have.
Biddy is a story in herself. It had been her goal to be an executive secretary, and she became a proficient stenographer capable of taking shorthand at 250 words a minute. Biddy traveled with her husband, taking down every sermon and lesson he taught. Thirty books bear the name of Oswald Chambers, but only one was penned by his hand. The others are drawn from his teachings as recorded by Biddy.
After Chambers’ death, Biddy began to compile his messages for publication. Later, their daughter, Kathleen, would help in the process. One title became one of the best-known Christian books in the history of publishing: My Utmost for His Highest, a compilation of 366 one-page devotions. Today, thousands of Christians read material first delivered almost a century ago.
Oswald Chambers was not famous in his day, and had it not been for Biddy he might have remained lost in obscurity. Chambers’ lasting ministry came about because Biddy took down every word by hand.
While Chambers covered many topics and hundreds of Scripture passages, it is easy to see a basic theme: the Christian’s duty is to fully submit to Christ. Chambers’ preaching often centered on a “less of me, more of him” theology. To Chambers, the Christian was at his or her best when fully absorbed by faith.
Chambers’ lasting contribution to the shaping of the church was the fervent and consistent reminder that the faithful life is not about the Christian but about Jesus. To Chambers, everything orbited Christ.
My Utmost for His Highest is widely read in the twenty-first century, still changing hearts and educating minds, and will do so for untold decades to come. The artist turned preacher has touched more lives than he ever imagined he could, and helped shape the church in the process.