On God
God is Goodness.
He can give good, but cannot need or get it.
In that sense all His love is, as it were, bottomlessly selfless by very definition;
it has everything to give and nothing to receive.
Hence, if God sometimes speaks /as though the Impassible could suffer passion and eternal fullness could be in want,
and in want of those beings //on whom it bestows all /from their bare existence upwards,
this can mean only,
if it means anything intelligible by us,
that God of mere miracle has made [Himself] [able so to hunger and created in Himself //that which we can satisfy].
If He requires us, the requirement is of His own choosing.
It is a poor thing to strike our colours to God /when the ship is going down /under us;
a poor thing to come to Him as a last resort, to offer up “our own” when it is no longer worth keeping.
* Striking the colors—meaning lowering the flag (the "colors") that signifies a ship's or garrison's allegiance—is a universally recognized indication of surrender, particularly for ships at sea.
If God were proud He would hardly have us /on such terms: but He is not proud, He stoops /to conquer,
He will have us /even though we have shown [that we prefer everything else] /to Him.
From The Problem of Pain
Compiled in Words to Live By