Oswald and Biddy; photo courtesy Wheaton College Special Collections library
You probably think Oswald Chambers wrote the well-loved devotional My Utmost for His Highest.
You’re only half right.
The ideas, the concepts, the ear willing to listen to God‘s direction and the ability to communicate them, all came through Oswald Chambers’ teaching.
Putting it together into a coherent devotional, however, was the work of his widow, Biddy Chambers.
My Utmost for His Highest was a successful joint effort conceived of, created by, and directed in accordance with God’s direction.
The story, of course, began long before My Utmost for His Highest was first published in 1927.
Spending Time in God’s Word
The key to life for Oswald Chambers was the Bible and studying God’s word and praying were central to that task. He rose early in the morning and believed spending time with God first, was important.
Longtime friend Dinsdale Young described Oswald Chambers this way:
“He had a richly endowed mind which he reinforced by ceaseless study and prayer. His utterances in public were charming in form, rich in suggestion and full of ‘power from on high.’ “
Raised in a pious Scots family, the son of a clergyman in the Baptist church, Oswald, OC, gave his life to Christ as a teenager. After studying fine arts at Edinburgh University, he attended Dunoon Training College to focus on the Bible. More than one person who knew him during that time described him as a “man of prayer.”
Another noted:
“he always put devotion first. Early to bed and early to rise was his rule, and the early hours were spent in devotional exercises and study. This was the reason he was so sure of God and His guidance.”
OC began preaching as a young man and ultimately preached all over the United Kingdom, including Ireland, the United States, Japan and ended in Egypt. On that trip to his YMCA post in Egypt in 1915, it was said he spoke to every passenger on the USS Baltic about God–some 1300 people. His was a focused life and Jesus was at the center.
Stenographer Needed
Notes drawn and written by OC in his Bible
At the turn of the twentieth century, the popular press often printed sermons in newspapers the day after they were preached. OC himself submitted his talks to Tongues of Fire magazine and monthly copies often included the text of his teachings. He liked the idea of using the printed word to spread the good news of Jesus Christ, according to biographer David McCasland in Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God.
Gertrude Hobbs, meanwhile, cherished a dream of becoming secretary to the British Prime Minister and as a sickly teenager perfected her stenography skills. At one point she was “clocked” at 250 words per minute–or faster than most people speak.
OC had a sister named Gertrude, so he gave the young woman he came to love a nickname: B.D. for “beloved disciple,” which soon was shortened to Biddy.
Daughter Kathleen noted that Biddy took down in shorthand all of OC’s talks, “because she liked to do it and it helped her listen better.”
Baptized in 1905, Biddy shared OC’s enthusiasm for God and the work of the church.
As early as 1909, a year before they married, Oswald envisioned a future literary partnership:
“I want us to write and preach; if I could talk to you and you shorthand it down and then type it, what ground we could get over! I wonder if it kindles you as it does me!”
Take this Down
It was fortunate God provided OC with a wife who liked taking down shorthand and believed in his mission. When the couple began the Bible Training College in 1911 London, Biddy sat in on every lesson and wrote down everything–both for her own edification and for the literary work OC envisioned.
OC kept a diary and they both maintained an enormous correspondence with friends, supporters and students. At one point, OC taught a correspondence course of 600 students whose papers needed to be graded and returned every three weeks.
In 1915, OC closed the Bible Training College and moved to a YMCA encampment just north of Cairo, Egypt. Biddy and Kathleen followed by the end of the year and began another round of ministry–this time in more challenging conditions.
An example of Biddy’s shorthand
Biddy joined him each evening as he lectured or taught, taking everything down in her impeccable shorthand. He recognized her value to him and to God.
During 1917, OC taught on the book of Job to the many ANZAC soldiers preparing to go to France or join in the conquest of Palestine. After three years of war, the men were tired, the job never ending and the suffering horrific. Many flocked to hear him preach on Job.
He and Biddy prepared the talks into a book, the only book published by Oswald Chambers in his lifetime, called Baffled to Fight Better.
Oswald Chambers died unexpectedly in November 1917, a year before the end of the war.
Biddy Chambers remained at Zeitoun for eighteen more months, completing the YMCA ministry begun by her husband. She and Kathleen returned to England in June 1919.
She may not have realized it at the time, but Biddy had a life’s work ahead of her–using her husband’s words.
Who Wrote My Utmost for His Highest and How? Part II, comes next time.
Tweetables
Who Wrote My Utmost for His Highest and How? Click to Tweet
Was Oswald Chambers solely responsible for My Utmost for His Highest? Click to Tweet
He wrote and preached; she shorthanded it: My Utmost for His Highest. Click to Tweet
Cover of My Utmost for His Highest
The post Who Wrote My Utmost for His Highest and How? Part I appeared first on Michelle Ule, Author.