If Only

On a busy street in a Japanese place
A man wipes tears from his Asian face
He feels limitations of time and space
A car, a house,
A dog, a spouse
Daily prayers at the shrine
People think his life is fine
He wants his life to cross the line
Unaware that the mountains scream
Of Someone’s love that is supreme
If only he knew, if only he knew

Beside the muddy Ganges water
A weeping mother watches her drowning daughter
To Goddess Ganges, she gave her best offer
The guilt of her sin still remains
After witnessing death that left much pain
In all of India there is no god
That can remove from her the iniquity rod
Tears are wiped to keep her facade
But there is a God who paid a price
Erased sin because of great sacrifice
If only she knew, if only she knew

Northern Nigeria in a small school
Where the Quran is taught and a Christian’s a fool
An African boy is forced to the Islamic pool
Each day, for hours he must recite
The Arabic words of God’s prophet with all his might
So that years later he will one day state
“Bombing a church is easy. Christians I hate!”
Not knowing that eternal suffering is his fate
He was brainwashed since age five
But he could have a transformed mind
If only he knew, if only he knew

Atlanta Georgia, inner city
Most drive by and give looks of pity
Fourteen years old, she’s tall and pretty
That’s what the drug dealers say
When she walks to school on a regular day
Knowing that her destiny is to please
And never live a life of ease
To always live on fixes and government cheese
But there is One who sees her as priceless
A beautiful jewel hidden in darkness
If only she knew, if only she knew

Sunday morning in a steeple
Pressed outfits on three hundred people
Cheerful faces, leather Bibles, and a heap of
Friendly handshakes and loud praises
Amens and excited phrases
Drowning in the complacency of abundance and freedom
They know full well that Christ died to redeem them
They cannot be awakened from this comfortable dream and
Will not see what can be done for the lost
They don’t know about the extreme cost
If only they knew, if only they knew

“You who can resist the half-articulate pleading of many and many a heart today, can you resist this? From millions of voiceless souls, it is rising now—does it not touch you at all? The missionary magazines try to echo the silent sob. You read them? Yes; and you skim them for good stories nice pictures, bits of excitement—the more the better. Then they drop into the waste paper basket, or swell some dusty pile in the corner. For perhaps “there isn’t much in them.” Very likely not; “there isn’t much” in the silence any more than in darkness, at least not very much reducible to print; but to God there is something in it for all that. Oh! You—you, I mean, who are weary of hearing the reiteration of the great unrepealed commission, you who think you care, but who certainly don’t, past costing point, is there nothing that will touch you?”

Amy Carmichael

From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Luke 12:48