In 1915, Oswald Chambers took a job with the Y.M.C.A. and moved to Cairo, Egypt, where military camps surrounded the city. With the invasion of the Dardanelles, thousands of wounded men were brought there. Soldiers were in Cairo because they were on leave or on their way to fight Turkish troops, and everyone knew that half of them would never return. In Cairo, the soldiers looked for ways to escape the horrors of war in drinking parlors and red-light districts. They echoed the scripture, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,”1 which, by the way, is a line taken completely out of context—and will be addressed further down.
Military authorities were quite concerned for their men, anxious for their mental and physical health, wanting them to be prepared for battle. They turned to the Y.M.C.A. asking them “to provide activity centers and wholesome alternatives for men who were far away from the influence and restraints of home.”*
Chambers arrived to find one facility—a hut with a wooden frame holding benches that would seat 400. There were tables with free writing paper and pencils along with posters advertising occasional concerts and films and evening prayer meetings (which no one ever attended and therefore never happened). Chambers’ predecessor had posted rules, regulations, and instructions on the walls forbidding swearing and stealing. On his second night there, Chambers removed the signs and stood on the platform announcing that prayers would be held in the hut in fifteen minutes. Two soldiers came and Chambers prayed with them. The next night Chambers announced another prayer meeting and a few more soldiers came. Then Chambers announced that in addition to nightly prayer meetings, he would be holding a weekly religious service. His colleagues told him that no one would come. “But on Thursday, November 4, only a week after he arrived, 400 men packed into the hut to hear his talk titled ‘What Is the Good of Prayer?’ For three-quarters of an hour he spoke to an unusually attentive audience about the change prayer brings to our lives so that we may change things. Many of the men present that night were Australians, soon to be thrust into the insane slaughter at the Dardanelles.”** The Y.M.C.A. huts continued to hold concerts and films regularly, but attendance at the nightly prayer meetings and weekly religious services began to outgrow their numbers.
By the following year, Cairo became the center of the war effort. Fifty miles to the east was the Suez Canal, which was controlled by the British who used it to transport their soldiers to the Gallipoli Peninsula where the battle for the Dardanelles was ongoing. Nearly 100,000 men were camped within a 15-mile radius of the city. Chambers then decided to replace the entertaining concerts and films with Bible classes instead. His colleagues predicted the men would revolt. But Chambers erected a tent to hold nightly classes on Biblical Psychology and soon the 300-seat tent was at capacity with “soldiers whom no one could accuse of being religious”*** attending.
One would think that soldiers facing battle would prefer entertainment and self-indulging activities over Bible study. One would think that soldiers needed to laugh and drink and get their minds off the somber duty that lay ahead. And this is a common belief and practice for many. But Chambers knew what the soldiers knew and what King Solomon knew—that their search for pleasure was really a search for meaning. After Solomon indulged himself for a while, he felt empty and concluded, “Everything is meaningless!”2—which is how the soldiers felt every time they returned from battle.
Many things that give us pleasure are wonderful things! Music invites us to sing and dance! Sports give us excitement and fun! Parties surround us with friends and fine food and drink. It’s all very good! Pleasurable things make us laugh and relax and enjoy the moment. But if we look to pleasurable things to fill the void in our souls and comfort our aching hearts, we will find ourselves depressed and cynical and bitter about our world.
Oswald Chambers knew that the soldiers were really searching for meaning in their lives and needed help understanding how God and prayer and faith could make a difference. He wrote in his diary, “Instruction is certainly the crying need among these men, and not the habitual evangelistic cry for Gospel meetings. There are so many ‘saved’ souls waiting instruction, and they take it with great zest.”***
We all know ‘saved’ souls waiting instruction. Most people—whether they realize it or not—desperately want to know that in the midst of their chaos is a loving God who has a meaningful plan for their lives. But all they know to do is escape their painful lives by immersing themselves in pleasure. Some people have actually quoted that scripture (not knowing it was scripture) to me in their defense: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” But what Paul actually said was “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”1 Meaning—if Christ was not raised from the dead, there is no life after death, so we might as well live for today only. But he did! And there is!
Our takeaway? Pleasure cannot bring meaning to life. Only God can do that.
11 Corinthians 15:32 2Ecclesiastes 1:2 *McCasland, David. “The Y.M.C.A. in Egypt.” Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, Discovery House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993, p. 215. **McCasland, David. “The Y.M.C.A. in Egypt.” Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, Discovery House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993, p. 218. ***McCasland, David. “War Work.” Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God, Discovery House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1993, p. 226.