I used to have a large collection of books. I like having them around me. The King built me wall-sized bookcases in all of the houses we’ve inhabited. This one came with them already lining the walls. It was heaven for awhile, but keeping everything dusted was getting out of hand. Then we remodeled and went for a nice, clean look. No more shelves.

I gave away boxes and boxes and stored those I couldn’t part with. Slowly I winnowed out the stored ones, keeping just a few old faithful friends.

Like puppies following a child home, however, books are finding their way back (and I bought two new bookcases!). The library has a sale, and for under a dollar I can’t resist something I’ve always wanted to read. I read about an interesting one on a blog or news site, and I order it from Amazon. I find a copy of a childhood/young adult classic that I must have available for my grandchildren. A friend let me choose what I wanted from the massive amount he inherited from his parents.

And that’s where I must have picked up Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God. My very worn copy of My Utmost For His Highest has stimulated and encouraged me over the years as I’ve read the daily devotionals. Meaty, challenging, and pithy, yet they left me with a picture of Chambers that turns out to be exactly the opposite of who he was.

Turns out Chambers was not a stuffy old Scottish teacher/preacher but, rather, an intelligent and artistic, fun-loving, outdoorsy, grace-filled lover of life. Very disciplined and totally reliant on God’s guidance for each step of his life and provision for all of his needs, he traveled around the world preaching and teaching with joy and a spirit of adventure.

As World War I encompassed Europe, he left the Bible school he helped found and answered God’s call to supervise a YMCA in Egypt. Not your ordinary chaplain, he took down all the “don’t do this” signs and innovatively made the Y soldier friendly without compromising truth and morals.

At just 43, he died of complications from appendicitis and was buried in Egypt. His cherished wife, Biddy, who disciplined herself to become a 200-plus word-per-minute stenographer before marrying Chambers, for years had been faithfully taking down his sermons, teachings and devotionals in shorthand, transcribing and compiling them into booklets and leaflets. After his death, that became her life’s work.

There’s nothing like a well-written biography, nothing like reading about real people. I would love to have dinner with Oswald Chambers. And as I start through My Utmost for His Highest again, it’ll be with new eyes and a feeling like I’m reading letters from an old friend.

"He was full of the Holy Spirit and that was the secret of his happy service. He was absolutely free from worry, living what he liked to call a 'restlessly restful life.'" Arthur Chambers eulogizing his brother Oswald