My Utmost
A Devotional Memoir
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A beautifully written and heartfelt memoir by a young woman from Dallas, Texas, exploring the Evangelical Christianity of her childhood and its meaning to her in the present through the classic daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest.
Raised in an Evangelical household by her beloved grandmother and mother, Macy Halford eventually leaves Dallas for college and a career in journalism in New York City. As her work and friendships increasingly take her into a more secular world, Halford finds her Evangelicalism evolving in interesting directions. Yet she continues to read My Utmost for His Highest—a classic Christian text, beloved by millions of Evangelicals around the world—every day. Eager to understand Utmost's unique ability to bridge her two worlds, she quits her coveted job at The New Yorker in order to look more deeply into the background of the devotional—with its daily selection from the sermons and writings of the Scottish Evangelical preacher Oswald Chambers—wrestling with who Oswald really was, what ideas informed his teaching and beliefs, and why the book means so much to her. Interweaving her own story with that of the Chamberses (Oswald died ministering to British soldiers in World War I Egypt; his devoted wife spent her life publishing his speeches, sermons, and books), Halford gives us a captivating and candid memoir about what it means to be a Christian, a reader, and a seeker in the twenty-first century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In her debut, Halford, a copy editor at the New Yorker, weaves the story of her young adulthood with the history of the popular daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest, which she, her mother, and her grandmother have all incorporated into their spiritual practices. The devotional, assembled from the writings of Scottish preacher Oswald Chambers (1874 1915), was edited and published posthumously by his wife, Biddy, and has remained in print ever since. Halford recounts her quest to learn more about Chambers's life, faith, and writings, adding her reflections on what the book has meant in her own life. An evangelical raised in the Southern Baptist tradition, Halford attended Barnard College and has worked for many years at the New Yorker a life far removed from the modern American Evangelical subculture. Chambers's life and legacy, along with Halford's own personal journey, prove to be a powerful lens through which to examine the roots of fundamentalist evangelicalism and its rocky relationship with the modern world. Although the book is first and foremost a memoir, neither a full biography of Chambers nor a history of modern evangelicalism, those interested in either topic will appreciate the "Further Reading" essay and select bibliography at the end of the work. Halford's enlightening memoir is a must-read for those interested in My Utmost for His Highest or evangelicalism in the 21st century.
