My Utmost

Raised in an Evangelical household by her beloved grandmother and mother, Macy Halford eventually leaves Dallas for a career in journalism in New York City. She continues to read the devotional each day--and learns quickly that, though the book has sold millions of copies, few of her new acquaintances have heard of it. Finally, excavating her spiky relations with her upbringing, 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.