WHAT IF?

WHAT IF

By Karen Sue Hale

What would happen if an army came

and conquered our country and changed its name?

Then suddenly all of the laws had been changed,

and it was now a crime to speak Jesus’ name?

What if they took our Bibles away;

made it a crime to worship and pray;

and we’d have to guard every word that we’d say?

Imagine it happened just yesterday.

Imagine the sorrow. Imagine the fear.

Perhaps you might muster at least one small tear.

Imagine we’re meeting in secret here,

afraid of losing the ones we hold dear.

How would we comfort each other tonight?

Who has a word that would help in our plight?

Do you know some Scripture? I hope that we might

encourage ourselves in the spiritual fight.

I hope that we have Scripture memorized.

I hope that God’s word is a part of our lives.

I hope we know songs and hymns line by line.

What we’ve stored in our hearts, God would now bring to mind.

What if this nightmare were reality?

Would there be enough hope found within you and me?

What if our bibles were taken away?

What if it happened just yesterday?

But you say, “This couldn’t happen!” And I pray it never will.

Yet I tell you there’s a great danger still…

What if the Christians just didn’t care?

They ceased to stand up. They ceased to be wary

of atheist creed and humanist teachers

and dozed apathetically before godly preachers.

What if the church were content to be

just one more wave on philosophy’s sea;

placidly drifting, not stirring the waves:

not cold, nor hot. “Lukewarm,” Christ would say.

What if we saw this sea full of sin,

then comfortably watched as our neighbors fell in?

What if we heard the Word preached each Sunday,

then promptly forgot it on the way to work Monday?

What if the church were really so dead

that the words of this poem drift over your head,

and you look at the next guy and say, “It’s his fault”?

Yet we’re all so lukewarm, we’re neither light nor salt.

Perhaps, it would be better if an army came,

made it a crime to speak Jesus’ name

and shocked us into the spiritual fight.
Please, brothers and sisters, pretend it could happen tonight.