"If" by Amy Carmichael (published in 1938 by SPCK, London)

Back in junior high, I was introduced to this dynamic woman.. long dead, but still so relevant and needful in aiming toward my goal, that is, to be a godly woman and to always keep my mind on heaven and strive to show God's amazing love to those around me.

Amy wrote a book called "If" and I received a copy as a Christmas present over 15 years ago and I still have it.  Being nostalgic, I took it off my dusty shelf to see if I could find the same conviction in these pages as I did when I was 17.

Here is the introduction:

"There are times when something comes into our lives which is charged with love in such a way that it seems to open the Eternal to us for a moment, or at least some of the Eternal Things, and the greatest of these is love.

It may be a small and intimate touch upon us or our affairs, light as the touch of the dawnwind on the leaves of the tree, something not to be captured and told to another in words.  But we know that it is our Lord.  And then perhaps the room where we are, with its furniture and books and flowers, seems less "present" than His Presence, and the heart is drawn into that sweetness of which the old hymn sings.

The love of Jesus, what it is

None but His loved ones know.

Or it is the dear human love about us that bathes us as in summer seas and rests us through and through.  Can we ever cease to wonder at the love of our companions?  And then suddenly we recognize our Lord in them.  It is His love that they lavish upon us.  O Love of God made manifest in Thy lovers, we worship Thee.

Or (not often, perhaps, for the dimness seems to be more wholesome for us here, but sometimes, because our Lord is very merciful) it is given to us to look up through the blue air and see the love of God.  And yet, after all, how little we see! "That ye may be able to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge"--the words are too great for us.  What do we comprehend, what do we know? Confounded and abased, we enter into the Rock and hide us in the dust before the glory of the Majesty of love--the love whose symbol is the cross.

And a question pierces then: What do I know of Calvary love?"

The inspiration of this book came when one of Amy's fellow workers brought a problem about a younger person who was "missing the way of Love." Initially, it brought self-reflection on her own heart, "Lord, is it I? Have I failed her anywhere?  What do I know of Calvary Love?" Hence, the "ifs" came, as if spoken in the inward ear.  These "ifs" are related to pride, selfishness, and cowardice, but also digs deeper to the soul's knowledge of the love God shown at Calvary.