God wants to do in us before He wants to do with us.

Let us start: I am to rest in the mere presence of God.
We'll not pretend this is easy, self-absorbed as we are. Even one who purports himself considerate of others is found the egoist in the vicinity of our maker.
And then, when God is clearly before me,
I am emptied of pride,
Dispossessed of my drive for gain.
Wait.

In His time, He who is beyond time will reveal His direction,
His calling for the days and years upcoming.

Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

And after I surrender myself,
after I have let go,
after I wait,
after I hear...

Upon the completion of the time of pausing, in faith, I must trust
that everything that God has called me to do,
he has prepared me to do,
is equipping me to do,
and will lead me to fulfill.

In that time, with the confidence of God before me, I must move.

Where it all began

Ask me whether what I have done is my life.

Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made,
Ask me whether what I have done is my life.
Others have come in their slow way into my thought,
and some have tried to help or to hurt:
Ask me what difference their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look at the silent river and wait.
We know the current is there, hidden;
and there are comings and goings from miles away that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say

William Stafford, (c) 1977