This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “The Conditions of Discipleship”, promises that true discipleship requires “passionate devotion” to Jesus that supersedes family relationships, claiming the Holy Spirit imparts supernatural love that makes believers “blaze and glow with devotion” and creates “moral originality” through abandonment to God.
Here’s what blazing devotion through family abandonment actually produced:
“If your family relationships clash with Jesus’s claims, you must choose instant obedience to him,” Pastor Derek explained to his young adult ministry. “The Holy Spirit will give you passionate love that makes you blaze with devotion. This supernatural love creates moral originality that might seem inconsistent to others but is consistent to God.”
Twenty-two-year-old Nathan absorbed this teaching completely. When his parents objected to his plan to drop college and join a missionary organization, he recognized the exact conflict Chambers described. His family’s concerns about practical preparation and financial stability were opposing Jesus’s claims on his life.
Nathan chose “instant obedience” over family relationships. He left college despite his parents’ heartbreak, believing the Holy Spirit would provide the passionate devotion and moral originality needed for radical discipleship. His family’s anguish was proof he was truly following Jesus rather than human wisdom.
But the promised supernatural love was a devastating mirage.
Nathan struggled with loneliness, financial insecurity, growing doubt about his decision. The “blazing devotion” he’d expected felt more like religious pressure and social isolation. Instead of moral originality, he felt confused and directionless. The passionate love supposedly imparted by the Holy Spirit was nowhere to be found when he needed it most.
Meanwhile, his sister Sarah approached her calling to help others with zero expectation of supernatural devotion. As a social work student, she developed compassion through education, volunteer experience, professional training. Her love for vulnerable populations grew through sustained contact and learning, not through claimed divine impartation.
Sarah maintained close family relationships while pursuing meaningful service. She didn’t see her parents’ practical concerns as opposition to divine calling but as wisdom from people who cared about her wellbeing. Her approach required no family abandonment or supernatural transformation—just persistent commitment to helping others through competent professional service.
When Nathan finally returned home after two brutal years, his family welcomed him without judgment. His attempt to choose Jesus over family relationships had damaged bonds unnecessarily while providing zero spiritual benefit.
Where was the Holy Spirit’s passionate love that was supposed to make him blaze with devotion? Where was the moral originality that would sustain him through radical discipleship?
The “moral originality” he’d sought through abandonment had been isolation and poor decision-making. Sarah’s sustainable approach—maintaining family relationships while developing professional competence—proved infinitely more effective than Nathan’s radical discipleship.
Her love for others deepened through experience and education rather than claimed divine impartation. Her devotion was sustainable because it was based on human capacity and community support, not supernatural promises that never materialized.
Nathan’s breakthrough came when he realized that healthy family relationships could support rather than oppose meaningful service. The passionate devotion he’d sought through supernatural means grew naturally through finding work that matched his actual abilities and interests.
The silence where the Holy Spirit’s blazing love was supposed to sustain him revealed the truth: there was no supernatural devotion to access. Only human love and commitment that required no family sacrifice to flourish.
Reflection Question: When has maintaining family relationships while pursuing meaningful work been more sustainable than abandoning close relationships for spiritual reasons?
This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.
God or Delusion? 