I remember being awed by Chambers’s intensity, by his boldness in sweeping aside the claims of family and society over the individual. A Christian “might prefer to belong” to his mother or his wife or his friends, Chambers wrote, but this was not possible-not if that Christian was serious about belonging to Christ.Īt 15, entries like the one for January 1 stirred a complex array of emotions. This was a theme Chambers would explore throughout the book. It was entitled “Let Us Keep to the Point,” and it admonished readers that they must, through “an absolute and irrevocable surrender” of their will to Christ, begin to live “entirely for him and for him alone,” regardless of what it might cost the people in their lives. This was confirmed by the first entry, the one for January 1. The elegant title, which was printed in an ornate gilded typescript on my copy the high-toned language the onion-skin paper: all spoke to a certain nobility, a seriousness of purpose. My first impression of Utmost was that it was extremely important. When I was 15, she gave one of these copies to me. This was thanks to my grandmother, who, upon seeing a five-for-two special one Sunday at the church bookstore, had taken the lot. In the house in Dallas, Texas, where I spent my childhood, there were always copies of it lying around.

Like many Evangelical children, I was raised to trust Utmost, and to read it as part of my daily “quiet time” with God. Giving copies to their family members and friends, they have passed Utmost down through the generations, establishing it as a trusted spiritual guide. That honor belongs primarily to the millions of readers who have incorporated the book into their daily time of devotion. Bush has spoken often of his love of the book.īut it isn’t just the famous names that account for Utmost’s lasting popularity. The association with prominent Evangelical figures would continue through the decades: Jerry Falwell is remembered as a devotee, and George W.

Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, started early group meetings by reading from the book.

Among the book’s earliest readers were Billy Graham, Bill Bright, and Henrietta Mears. Yet Utmost swiftly won a following among American evangelicals-and not just any following. Its author was an obscure Scottish preacher who had died young-nearly 20 years earlier (this year marks the 100th anniversary of his death)-and who was mostly unknown and unpublished on American soil. When My Utmost for His Highest first appeared in the United States, in 1935, few could have predicted that the little book of daily readings would become a defining text of American evangelicalism.

My utmost for his highest