flighty, fickle, fleshy people

Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), who is best known for his daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest, abandoned his art and archaeology degree to obey a calling to ministry. Once in seminary he found it unsatisfying and the Bible dull, so he traveled, married, and finally came back around to founding a Bible college in London. Only four years later, he followed a calling to the war and was placed as YMCA chaplain in Egypt. Here he was not killed in the Battle of Gallipoli, but almost a year later at the age of 43 of a ruptured appendix!

This renowned author only wrote one book himself, Baffled to Fight Better: Job and the Problem of Suffering. His wife “Biddy” (Gertrude Hobbs), who Chambers married while seemingly running away from his calling to ministry, was a stenographer and recorded his lessons verbatim. She spent the rest of her life compiling her records to publish the bulk of the work that bears her husband’s name.

God blows my mind! He uses flighty, fickle, fleshy people to accomplish his work and it amazes me every time I think about it. Just like with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Daniel, Moses, Jonah, Samuel and David, God accomplishes his will in spite of our shortcomings. Literally, thank God!