Amy Carmichael by Janet & Geoff Benge

"Amy had known for as long as she could remember that God loved her, but she began to wonder about how knowing He loved her changed the way she acted each day."

Why do you get out of bed in the morning? What truly motivates you to flip back the covers and face the world? What gives you a little excitement about each new day? (Is this a weird question?) Maybe it's the possibility of some kind of adventure. Maybe it's just hanging out with people you love. Maybe, as Anne Shirley says, it's "all the things there are to find out about." Maybe it's that new book on your nightstand.

For Amy Carmichael, it was a huge enthusiasm for serving God. That enthusiasm took her across the world, from the United Kingdom to Japan, Ceylon, and finally India. She shared the gospel with hundreds of people overlooked by the world, took in hundreds of children rescued from terrible situations, and somehow found time to write several books. (Which are absolutely going on my list.) She was always busy with something.

I haven't read a lot of biographies, but they've finally got me interested - especially the Christian Heroes: Then and Now series. Amy's story is just plain exciting, so it's hard to say just how much the writing itself contributed, but it definitely did its part. I had to say "I love this book" to whoever was listening more than once over the course of reading it. Amy is - well, I almost said she's a great character, but she was a real person! Compassionate, brave, patient, joyful, unafraid to go against the traditional way of doing things. "If what she was doing was pleasing to God, that would be enough for her. If other people, even other Christians, didn't want to walk with beggars, that was their business, but Amy would walk with them, and she would walk proudly." There was a lot of sadness in her life, but for Amy Carmichael, the joy of doing the Lord's work made it all worth it.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." - Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)