Saturday, Febuary 27, 2015
I Stand by the Door
Samuel Moor Shoemaker
I stand by the
door.
I neither go too far
in, nor stay too far out,
The door is the most
important door in the world-
It is the door through
which people walk when they find God.
There's no use my
going way inside, and staying there,
When so many are still
outside and they, as much as I,
Crave to know where
the door is.
And all that so many
ever find
Is only the wall where
a door ought to be.
They creep along the
wall like blind people,
With outstretched,
groping hands.
Feeling for a door,
knowing there must be a door,
Yet they never find it
...
So I stand by the
door.
The most tremendous
thing in the world
Is for people to find
that door--the door to God.
The most important
thing any person can do
Is to take hold of one
of those blind, groping hands,
And put it on the
latch--the latch that only clicks
And opens to the
person's own touch.
People die outside
that door, as starving beggars die
On cold nights in
cruel cities in the dead of winter—
Die for want of what
is within their grasp.
They live, on the
other side of it—
live
because they have not found it.
Nothing else matters
compared to helping them find it,
And open it, and walk
in, and find Him ...
So I stand by the
door.
Go in, great saints,
go all the way in--
Go way down into the
cavernous cellars,
And way up into the
spacious attics--
It is a vast roomy
house, this house where God is.
Go into the deepest of
hidden casements,
Of withdrawal, of
silence, of sainthood.
Some must inhabit those
inner rooms.
And know the depths
and heights of God,
And call outside to
the rest of us how wonderful it is.
Sometimes I take a
deeper look in,
Sometimes venture in a
little farther;
But my place seems
closer to the opening ...
So I stand by the door.
There is another
reason why I stand there.
Some people get part
way in and become afraid
Lest God and the zeal
of His house devour them
For God is so very
great, and asks all of us.
And these people feel
a cosmic claustrophobia,
And want to get out.
"Let me out!" they cry,
And the people way
inside only terrify, them more.
Somebody must be by
the door
to
tell them that they are spoiled
For the old life, they
have seen too much:
Once taste God, and
nothing but God will do any more.
Somebody must be
watching for the frightened
Who seek to sneak out
just where they came in,
To tell them how much
better it is inside.
The people too far in
do not see how near these are
To
leaving--preoccupied with the wonder of it all.
Somebody must watch
for those who have entered the door,
But would like to run
away. So for them, too,
I stand by the door.
I admire the people
who go way in.
But I wish they would
not forget how it was
Before they got in.
Then they would be able to help
The people who have not,
yet even found the door,
Or the people who want
to run away again from God,
You can go in too
deeply, and stay in too long,
And forget the people
outside the door.
As for me, I shall
take my old accustomed place,
Near enough to God to
hear Him, and know He is there,
But not so far from
people as not to hear them,
And remember they are
there, too.
Where? Outside the
door--
Thousands of them,
millions of them.
But--more important
for me--
One of them, two of
them, ten of them,
Whose hands I am
intended to put on the latch.
So I shall stand by
the door and wait
For those who seek
it.
"I had rather be
a door-keeper ..."
So I stand by the
door.
Samuel Moor Shoemaker
III (1893-1963) was a priest of the Episcopal Church and one of the spiritual
leaders who helped draft the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
