"If"

If...

I myself dominate myself,

if my thoughts revolve around myself,

if I am so occupied with myself I rarely have "a heart at leisure from itself,"

Then...

I know nothing of Calvary love.

If...

a sudden jar can cause me to speak an impatient, unloving word*,

Then...

I know nothing of Calvary love.

(* For a cup brimful of sweet water cannot spill even one drop of bitter water, however suddenly jolted.)

If...

There be any reserve in my giving to Him who so love that He gave His Dearest for me;

if there be a secret "but" in my prayer, "Anything but that, Lord,"

Then...

I know nothing of Calvary love.

If...

I slip into the place that can be filled by Christ alone,

making myself the first necessity to a soul instead of leading it to fasten upon Him,

Then...

I know nothing of Calvary love.

If...

when an answer I did not expect comes to a prayer which I believed I truly meant,

I shrink back from it;

if the burden my Lord asks me to bear be not the burden of my heart's choice,

and I fret inwardly and do not welcome His will,

Then...

I know nothing of Calvary love.

"That which I know not, teach Thou me, O Lord, my God."

-quotes from Amy Carmichael "If"

"Do nothing from rivalry of conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." Phil. 2:3-7