Overview

No study of missions is complete without reading a biography of Amy Carmichael, missionary to India. Among the published options available today, Elisabeth Elliot’s A Chance to Die is the best.

But why did Elliot give this biography such an enigmatic title: A Chance to Die?

In the preface, Elliot explains that she first encountered the life story of Carmichael when she was fourteen years old. Elliot shares, “Amy Carmichael became for me what some now call a role model. She was far more than that. She was my first spiritual mother. She showed me the shape of godliness. For a time, I suppose, I thought she must have been perfect, and that was good enough for me. As I grew up I knew she could not have been perfect, and that was better, for it meant that I might possibly walk in her footprints. If we demand perfect models, we will have, except for the Son of man Himself, none at all.”

Elliot goes on to incorporate Carmichael’s phrase ” a chance to die” into her own understanding of the Christian life: “I saw that the chance to die, to be crucified with Christ, was not a morbid thing, but the very gateway to Life.” Elliot introduces her readers to this gateway and illustrates it with the life of Amy Carmichael.

As Elliot unfolds Carmichael’s riveting life story, a bit of her own experience leaks in. To some extent, this is unavoidable in every biography. Usually, such intrusions are unwelcome and distracting. However, in this case, the insights of one missionary into the life of another enhances the message of the book.

Therefore, start your journey into Carmichael’s life with Elliot as your guide. But then, continue into Carmichael’s own writings. She was a talented author in her own right. Read Things as They Are and If. Be challenged by Carmichael’s audacity and forthrightness. Be encouraged by her godliness. Maybe you too will find a mentor from afar.

Highlights

  • How God said no to Carmichael’s childhood request for blue eyes instead of brown and how He used those brown eyes in her ministry in India.
  • How God led a confused young woman from Japan, to Sri Lanka, to India.
  • How God changed Carmichael’s heart so that she could open orphanages to care for children in peril and to share the gospel with them.
  • The many accounts of rescuing young girls from temple prostitution in India.
  • How God influenced coworkers and people around the world through her writings, including Elisabeth Elliot.

Quotes

  • Missionary life is “a chance to die” (p.176).
  • “Be the first . . . wherever there is a sacrifice to be made, a self-denial to be practiced, or an impetus to be given” (p. 211).
  • “We shall have all eternity to celebrate the victories, but we have only the few hours before sunset in which to win them (p. 161, a quote from Carmichael’s Things As They Are, 126).
  • “Satan is so much more in earnest than we are–he buys up the opportunity while we are wondering how much it will cost” (p.85).
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Other Sources

Amy Carmichael is highlighted in Daring Devotion on Day 21 and in Daring Dependence on Day 17. Find out more at www.mrconrad.net.

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