The House of Our Soul
What kind of house does your soul live in? In The House of the Soul, Evelyn Underhill writes that the soul lives in a two-storey house. The ground floor represents our natural, physical lives; the ordinary concerns of daily existence.
The upper floor represents the spiritual life. It’s the interior space where we’re invited to meet and spend time with God and learn his deepest truths.
But many people, she says, only live downstairs and rarely or perhaps never visit their upper room. They don't get to see the extraordinary views from the upstairs windows. They miss out on the great joys stored up there.
And there are others, she says, who only live upstairs and refuse to go below. They prefer to remain aloof, avoiding the practical and earthy side of life.
Ideally every mature soul will occupy their entire house. They’ll make best use of both floors, letting both the natural and the supernatural flow freely through their lives. You can’t live a complete life by ignoring one floor of your home. The upper rooms are entirely supported by the lower ones, and the lower rooms are protected from the elements by those above.
2,000 years ago, at Pentecost, the disciples were hiding in their Upper Room. They didn’t know what to do with themselves after Jesus had returned to his Father in heaven. They were stuck in the upper room of their souls and didn’t know how to live downstairs, in the real world.
But then a noise like a mighty wind suddenly rushed through the house. Tongues of fire came to rest on each disciple, as they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Instantly, their lives were transformed and they were ready to begin again.
Filled with the gifts of the Spirit, they left their Upper Room, went down into the streets below and started telling everyone about Jesus. Their preaching was so effective that 3,000 people converted that day.
For those of us who feel trapped in our upper rooms, too scared to venture down into the real world, we need to open ourselves up to the power of the Holy Spirit.
And for those of us who only live downstairs, avoiding the joys of the spiritual life, we, too, need to open our windows to the fresh air of God’s divine love.
For we all live in a virtual two-storey house. It’s only when we open our hearts to the mystery of God that we will truly reap the fruits of the Spirit (Gal.5:22).
Deacon Peter McCulloch