Intended to do

We spend much time in talk, we write books about deep things, but we miss seeing God’s little chickadee as he flits cheerily in the snow-laden evergreen, finding the seed God has put there for him. We rarely consider a bird in his precious simplicity—the chickadee, wearing his little black cap and gray suit, whistling tinily, doing nothing but what he was made to do.

I would like to do nothing but what I was intended to do. I am sure this is what God intends. How shall I know what that is except in quietness? How listen if I am full of talk? I must cease the rehearsal of personal wants and feelings, willingly release things that seem important but in fact have nothing to do with my true goal. The itch to know and to have and to be anything other than what God intends me to know, to have, and to be must go.

Elisabeth Elliot, from A Path Through Suffering (which is a very good book--highly recommended)