Do you agree, out of the experiences of your own life, with the following?

"If a preacher uses his position to further his own ends, he is heading for disaster. There are many devoted to causes, but few devoted to Jesus Christ. If I am devoted to a particular cause only, when that cause fails, I fail too. "

This Oswald Chambers statement is one of many I've underlined recently. In fact, I've quoted Chambers so much that the editors asked me to read through his books and develop selected portions for our next issue's theme: "The Devotional Life." I've gone through about a dozen Chambers books so far, and I've never had a more enriching experience.

There's one side of Chambers that makes him especially ring true to me personally. He perceives not only piety, but the depth of despair without it. Like many of my generation (I'm 42), I've seen more brillant articulations of life's absurdity than its meaning. Although I've hung on fiercely to my faith for the past twenty years, I've also wrestled ...