My Utmost: A Devotional Memoir

by Macy Halford

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780307957986
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/07/2017
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

MACY HALFORD was born and grew up in Dallas, Texas; graduated from Barnard College; and worked at The New Yorker, where she eventually wrote most of the book reviews for the website. This is her first book. She is now living in Paris.

Read an Excerpt

A river touches places of which its source knows nothing.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "My Utmost"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Macy Halford.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

Halford is an expert, assured surveyor of all the rivers that nursed [Oswald] Chambers's soul—whether she's parsing minuscule differences between various evangelical doctrines, or suggesting a line from Scottish folk beliefs to the Victorian fantasy writer George MacDonald. My Utmost will be enjoyed and admired primarily by those who feel, as Halford does, "a complicated nostalgia" for the evangelical faith they were raised in—those who can't and won't defend all the old doctrines but find that religion still pulls at them when they come up against, as she puts it, "the fact that there are limits on what we know and what we can know; the fact that we all must learn to live with mystery, however clever we are, however much of it we dispel." And by those who struggle, or struggled, as Halford did, to reconcile the person who wants to believe with the person who wants to think.

The New York Times Book Review - Carlene Bauer

★ 12/12/2016
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. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, Zoe Pagnamenta Literary. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Halford’s enlightening memoir is a must-read for those interested in Oswald Chambers’s My Utmost for His Highest or evangelicalism in the 21st century . . . 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.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
 
“Self-aware but never self-indulgent, My Utmost provides an edifying look at one person’s spiritual journey and the impact an obscure Scottish preacher’s musings can have years later.” —Christine Engel, Booklist

From the Publisher

02/01/2017
Preacher and teacher Oswald Chambers's devotional My Utmost for His Highest (1935) serves as the framing narrative for this memoir of a young Southern evangelical woman living in the 21st century. Alhough the author of one of the most popular works of conservative American evangelicals, Chambers, who died in 1917, has faded in large measure from contemporary religious discourse, despite Utmost never having been out of print and boasting a current Facebook page. While working for The New Yorker, Halford begins to question why this is so, especially since Utmost was so pivotal to her own upbringing. She leaves New York to trace Chambers's history and spiritual and theological influences. Along the way, she experiences her own journey of spiritual self-discovery, embracing anew her commitment to a faith best expressed by Utmost. VERDICT For insiders who crave a deeper relationship with Chambers's work. However, for those not deeply conversant with Utmost, Halford's writings may read at times like a private conversation.—SC

Library Journal

2016-12-07
An exploration of one of Christianity's great devotional works. In her debut book, former New Yorker writer Halford fashions a memoir around a study of Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest (1935). Chambers (1874-1917) was a Scottish evangelist best known for a daily devotional edited from his writings and published posthumously. Utmost, as Halford refers to it, is a bestselling devotional, highly popular with evangelicals—including, as the author learned to her horror, George W. Bush. Halford, a Southern Baptist from Texas who went on to work in New York City, with stints in Paris and the U.K., struggled with the gulf between the world of her youth and that of her adulthood. Having spent years reading Utmost on a daily basis, she set out to study Chambers and more fully understand his motivations and ideals. She couches her study within her own autobiography, an intriguing concept that meets with only partial success. Halford finds in Chambers a kindred spirit in many ways. An avid reader and intellectual, Chambers was deeply shaped by the secular writers of his day; as such, "the book was shot through with the influence of poetry and fiction, those breeds of literature that traffic as heavily in mood as they do in ideas." Halford concludes that the Realism movement was one of Chambers' primary influences. She also learns of his complex spiritual journey, which included a profound moment of sanctification, as well as the effects of World War I on his faith life. Ultimately, however, Chambers' rich, intense, and selfless life and faith journey stand in stark contrast to Halford's 21st-century angst over not fitting in with New York or Parisian intellectuals yet also not being part of the evangelical crowd either. This gulf disrupts an otherwise worthy study. Halford's in-depth look at Chambers is interesting and instructive, but her memoir is thin in comparison. A fine core soured by the writer's own story.

Kirkus Reviews