the room with the closed door

"It daily becomes more apparent that God's respect for the freedom of our affections, thoughts, and purposes is complete. It is part of that respect for our freedom that He never forces upon us His own gifts. He offers them, but unless we actively accept them, they remain ineffective as far as we are concerned. 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock'--that is always the relation of God our Redeemer to our souls. He has paid the whole price; He has suffered the atoning Death, yet still He waits till we open the door of our hearts to let in His love which will call our love out. He never breaks down that door. He stands and knocks. And this is true not only of His first request for admission to the mansion of the soul; it is true also of every room within that mansion. There are many of us who have opened the front door to Him. but have only let Him into the corridors and staircases; all the rooms where we work or amuse ourselves are still closed to Him. There are still greater multitudes who have welcomed Him to some rooms, and hope that He will not ask what goes on behind the doors of others. But sooner or later He asks; and if we do not at once take Him to see, He leaves the room where we were so comfortable with Him, and stands knocking at the closed door. And then we can never again have the joy of His presence in the first room until we open the door at which He is now knocking. We can only have Him with us in the room that we choose for Him, if we really make Him free of all the house." ~William Temple

mea culpa

"Our standard of value is the way things affect us. Each of us takes our place in the center of our own world. But I am not the center of the world, or the standard of reference between good and bad. I am not, but God is.

In other words, from the beginning, I put myself in God's place. This is my original sin. I was doing it before I could speak, as has everyone else. I am not 'guilty' on this account because I could not help it. But I am in a state, from birth, in which I shall bring disaster on myself and everyone else unless I escape it.

Education may make my self-centeredness less disastrous by widening my horizons. But this is like climbing a tower which widens the horizons of my vision while leaving me still the center of reference. The only way to deliver me from my self-centeredness is by winning my entire heart's devotion, the total allegiance of my will to God--and this can only be done by the Divine love of God disclosed by Christ in His life and death."

~From Christianity and Social Order by William Temple