Appendix a: Lessons from the Life of Amy Carmichael

“Remember them that had the rule over you, men that spake unto you the word of God; and considering the issue of their life, imitate their faith.”

— Hebrews 13:7, ASV

The lessons below gather up the themes of this book so that readers can return to them. Amy Carmichael would not have wanted her life to be a pattern. She would have wanted it to point beyond herself to the God who, she believed, had led her every step of the way. Each lesson therefore rests on Scripture, not on her example alone. The letter to the Hebrews tells us to consider how those who went before us lived and died, and to imitate their faith, not every detail of their lives. Some of the lessons below come from her failures as well as her faithfulness.

1. No Is Also an Answer

The child who prayed for blue eyes learned that God hears every prayer, and that he is free to say no. She learned the same lesson again in a sickroom sixty years later. “What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt understand hereafter” (John 13:7, ASV).

2. Faith Must Become One’s Own

Amy grew up in a home full of faith, but at fifteen, at a children’s mission in Harrogate, she received the love of God for herself. “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee” (Jeremiah 31:3, ASV).

3. Build With What Will Last

An old woman’s bundle, carried through the streets of Belfast, taught her that respectability is stubble and love is gold. “The fire itself shall prove each man’s work of what sort it is” (1 Corinthians 3:13, ASV).

4. Christ Is the Keeper

At a convention in Glasgow she learned that the Christian life is not a strain after holiness but a trust in the one who is able to keep us. “Now unto him that is able to guard you from stumbling … be glory” (Jude 24-25, ASV).

5. Go Where the Poor Are

She built a hall for girls too poor to wear hats, and lived in a slum to be near the mill girls of Manchester. “Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor” (Luke 14:21, ASV).

6. God Sets the Solitary in Families

An old Quaker took her into his home when she was worn out, and she spent her life doing the same for children with nowhere to go. “God setteth the solitary in families” (Psalm 68:6, ASV).

7. A Shut Door Is Not a Withdrawn Call

The China Inland Mission turned her down, her health failed in Japan, and she was called home from Ceylon. She went on believing that she had been sent. “Trust in Jehovah with all thy heart, And lean not upon thine own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5, ASV).

8. Do Not Let Your Clothes Get in the Way

A pair of fur gloves taught her that foreign habits can distract from the gospel. She wore a kimono in Japan and a sari in India. “I am become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22, ASV).

9. Faithfulness, Not Success

Most days in the villages ended as they began. She held on to the text that says stewards must be found faithful, and thanked God that it did not say successful. “Here, moreover, it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2, ASV).

10. Tell the Truth

Things as They Are told readers at home what they did not want to hear. Honesty about the cost and slowness of the work was, she believed, the foundation of true prayer. “For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth” (2 Corinthians 13:8, ASV).

11. Speak Fairly of Those You Oppose

Her writing about Hinduism was often harsh, and it gave real offence. A Christian witness is weakened, not strengthened, by caricature of others’ faith. “But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15, ASV).

12. Count the Cost, and Do Not Hide It

Converts in caste India often lost home, family and inheritance. She did not hide that cost from them or from her readers. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23, ASV).

13. One Child Matters

Her great work began with a single runaway girl who climbed onto her knee. “Whosoever shall receive one of such little children in my name, receiveth me” (Mark 9:37, ASV).

14. Speak for Those Who Cannot Speak

She gave her life to protecting children whose futures had been decided for them before they could understand. “Open thy mouth for the dumb, In the cause of all such as are left desolate” (Proverbs 31:8, ASV).

15. Honour Those Who Fought Beside You

The end of temple dedication was won above all by Indian reformers. Christians should be glad to honour the good done by others, and slow to claim credit for themselves. “Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up” (1 Corinthians 13:4, ASV).

16. Let the Plan Go

She came to India to preach in the villages, and found herself caring for babies. She let her own plan go and took the work God gave her. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” (Ecclesiastes 9:10, ASV).

17. Wait for God’s Time

She prayed for six years about the boys before the first boy came. “Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; Yea, wait thou for Jehovah” (Psalm 27:14, ASV).

18. Tell Your Needs to God

Dohnavur made no appeals for money and testified that it never lacked what it needed. Those who follow her in this should beware of asking by not asking. “And my God shall supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19, ASV).

19. Lead Without Lording It

Her strength built Dohnavur, and her difficulty in sharing authority cost it Stephen Neill and caused others pain. “Neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:3, ASV).

20. In Christ There Is No Caste

At Dohnavur children of every community ate, slept and prayed together as sisters and brothers. “There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28, ASV).

21. Weakness Is Not Wasted

Twenty years in a room produced her most enduring books and a deeper gentleness. “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9, ASV).

22. Love Is Tested in Small Things

Her best-known book measures small failures of love against the love of Calvary. “Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not … seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5, ASV).

23. Except a Grain of Wheat Die

She let go of home, work, health and control, and believed that each letting go bore fruit. “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit” (John 12:24, ASV).

24. Be Remembered as Love

Over her grave there is no name, only the word the children gave her. The greatest honour a Christian can receive is to have loved well. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, ASV).