Uninstructed

“I am going to send you down to earth,”
Said God to me one day,
“I’m giving you what men call ‘birth’– 
Tonight you’ll start away; 
I want you there to live with men; 
Until I call you back again.”

I trembled as I heard him speak,
Yet I know that I must go;
I felt His hand upon my cheek, 
And wished that I might know –
Just what on earth would be my task,
And timidly I dared to ask.

“Tell me before I start away, 
What thou would have me do;
What message would you have me say?
When shall my work be through? 
That I may serve on earth, 
Tell me the purpose of my birth.”

God smiled at me and softly said:
“Oh,  you shall find your task.
I want you on life’s path to tread, 
So do not stay to ask.
Remember,  if your best you do, 
That I shall ask no more of you.”

How often, as my work I do, 
So commonplace and grim, 
I sit and sigh and wish I knew 
If I am pleasing Him.
I wonder if, with every test, 
I’ve truly tried to do my best.

-Edgar A. Guest