HER UTMOST--FOR HIGH PURPOSES

Two “seasoned” devotionals have been my go-to's for decades. One is Streams in the Desert (c.1925, 1953, 1965), a compilation of spiritual encouragement and instruction from the files of a missionary to China. The other is My Utmost for His Highest (c. 1935), a collection of missionary-teacher Oswald Chamber's messages, mostly to students and later World War I soldiers serving in Egypt. In those days before modern recording devices, Chambers' messages were diligently “saved” in shorthand by his wife, Biddy (nickname for her real name “Gertrude”). Yes, shorthand. There were no electronic and computer aids in the early 1900s, when he ministered in England, Scotland and Egypt.

Oswald had known Gertrude Hobbs casually through mutual friends. Afflicted early in life with bronchitis, Gertrude had worked diligently to perfect her short-hand skills, achieving a remarkable speed of 250 words a minute. Her goal was to someday work in the secretarial offices of Britain's monarchy. But before that came an ocean voyage to America, where she intended to pursue a job opportunity. Also on the ship that crossing: Oswald Chambers, brother of her family's pastor.

Oswald was a bachelor and Holiness-movement Bible teacher in London before his life direction turned to evangelistic work among Australian and New Zealand troops in Egypt during World War I. Earlier, during his ministries in England and the United States, he became better acquainted with Gertrude, whom he'd nicknamed “Biddy” (for “beloved disciple”). In marrying Chambers, instead of using her shorthand in service of the British king, Biddy used them for their Heavenly King. When Chambers spoke, she would be in the audience taking down his words in shorthand to later transcribe.

His ministry would take them in 1915 to Egypt, where he preached to soldiers under the auspices of the YMCA. Sometimes hundreds of soldiers would pack his wooden-framed hut to hear his messages. While there, in 1917 he died of appendicitis, having resisted medical care for his health emergency, saying the wounded soldiers needed medical care more. His death left Biddy (and their young daughter) living under what one biographer called “very straitened circumstances” (meaning financially difficult).

Returning to England with their daughter, Biddy devoted the rest of her life to transcribing 29 years of shorthand-saved sermons and lessons into messages for publication. Most successful of his forty-plus books would be a daily devotional titled My Utmost For His Highest, prepared while she also ran a boarding house in Oxford. England. Since its publication early a century ago (first self-published in 1924, then commercially in 1927, then in the US 1935), it has never been out of print, and has sold more than 13 million copies and been translated into 39 languages.

One takeaway from her story: you never know what God can do with a skill entrusted to you. Because of Biddy's diligence in using shorthand—because she gave her utmost for God's highest--more than a hundred years later, Oswald Chambers still speaks.

SHORT LIFE, ENDURING MESSAGE

I can't recall when I got my first copy of the classic devotional, “My Utmost for His Highest.” I only know that from early adulthood it was among the books that challenged and help grow my faith-walk. Only recently, learning the story of its author, I am even more grateful that it came to be.

The book's author is listed as Oswald Chambers, a British evangelist and missionary who ended up in Egypt, where he ministered to British soldiers, dying of appendicitis in 1917, only 43 years old. By one report, he refused medical intervention for his agonizing condition, saying the wounded soldiers needed the doctors more than he did.

Though the book carries his name as author, the real credit goes to his wife “Biddy” (her nickname for “Gertrude”), a skilled stenographer. As a single woman, she'd committed herself to excellence in that business skill, hoping it might come to the attention of England's prime minister. But before that might have happened, she met and married Britisher and evangelist Oswald Chambers. She'd follow him in his missionary endeavors, finally ending up in Egypt where World War I battles raged between the British and Ottoman Empire. He served the troops as a chaplain, speaking at the soldiers' chapels. Quietly, in the audience, sat Biddy, taking meticulous notes in shorthand.

Seven years after their marriage, Chambers died—reportedly of appendicitis for which he refused treatment, saying the injured soldiers needed medical help more. Biddy would spend the next 35 years raising their daughter (their only child) and transcribing Oswald's shorthand-saved devotional messages into books. She refused personal name recognition for her work, with only his name listed as author.

First published posthumously in the United Kingdom in 1927, and in the United States in 1934, it has reportedly sold more than 13 million copies. All that—ironically--because a little-known woman who knew shorthand carried forth the skill to bring glory to God. In other words, to live out in her unique (yet God-planned) circumstance, the scriptural admonition to “train yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7).