Standing Still

I have a collection of books written by my grandfather. In one of them, When Days Seem Dark, I came across these words:

"Standing still on some occasions is the paramount duty of the follower of Christ. There are times when we must be merely onlookers--when the flesh and the brain refuse to work, hopes shrivel like autumn leaves, and we simply do not know which way to turn. It may be just then that we shall learn for the first time how to stand still in perfect peace and quietness of soul. Not idling away our time, not hopelessly limp and heedless of the outcome--but working on in such ways as may be given to us. Observing with eager joy the way in which God will work it all out to a perfectly glorious ending.

"All our little fussiness and haste, all our strong anxiety and warping care are as futile as the tugging of a little child's hand at the great iron knob of a closed and barred gate through which his loving father does not to care to have him go just then."

                 — As read in Be Still My Soul, by Elizabeth Elliot