Sanders – My Utmost for His Highest: Books that Influenced Me, Part 1

“It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to be shallow, but your wish to impress other people with the fact that you are a spiritual prig… Beware of posing as a profound person; God became a Baby… Determinedly take no one seriously but God, and the first person you will find you have to leave severely alone as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.” – OSWALD CHAMBERS, MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST, P327

[Context: When I sorted out about a hundred books to give away in the Spring of this year, as is my annual tradition, I made a stack of the books that influenced me most at different times in my life.]

I have never found dailyness to be my spiritual life rhythm–so daily devos like Chambers’ book were not my jam. I encountered it first in High School but didn’t really dive into because of this–it even had dates at the top of every page. That really turned me off.

But when I was 19, and turning 20 years old this specific volume was given to me by Linda Bruce… on my birthday in 1993. That summer we were on a team with two others, including my best friend Brendon, traveling North America on behalf of our university. She was the one that taught me about what a “walk with Jesus” might look like.

Because of my life rhythm, I was more likely to read 5-10 of Oswald Chambers in a row on a Friday or Saturday–and would do so throughout my entire time at college and into my late 20s. I spent almost a decade with Chambers I recall. Many a time I would pack a granola bar, a water bottle, a Bible and MUFHH (as I would call it… say it out loud for fun and try not to smile) and would head into the woods for a “walk with Jesus.”

This book is one of the few on my list that is likely to be on many people’s list, so I won’t go on and on. You may have your own favorite quotes from it too. This is one of the most marked-up books I own, but these lines above near the end are the ones that nailed me the hardest at age 19, turning 20, and for about a decade after that as I read and re-read it.

The Greatest Fraud I’ve Ever Known,

-David Drury