...I honestly have struggled to completely comprehend Daniel at times...but for whatever reason, reading it along with a new commentary I have, some of the imagery and tension in the book has begun to take greater root within me. still have more to read in the book, but i'm challenged by the over-arching tension of allegiances within the book. Daniel, Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego being called by Babylon and Persia to break off in any given way their allegiance to the living God and into whatever way of being and worship the Babylonians and Persians are acting. Things as small as how they eat, to as large as bowing before another. how many ways to we allow our allegiances to go to something other than God, the living God? I'm talking something as simple as the way we choose to spend our money to the complicated things; like what we actually pledge allegiance to? what is it that we completely orient our lives around?
that's the thing about these guys...this wasn't some crisis moment where they had to make a quick decision and will they be able to stand underneath the pressure. this is just what they do...its what they have been doing, their lives are completely oriented around serving YHWH and there was going to be nothing that distracted them from it. they were going to allow themselves to be lost in who God was.
do i?
i mean, really, do i?
does the way I eat reflect my understanding of the physical body God has given me?
does the way I parent reflect the way Christ has parented me?
does the way I compete reflect the way Christ has called me to treat the other?
do the things i make my priorities reflect the priorities of the Creator?
this isn't some law deal where I'm going to go through some checklist so I can feel better about myself for a moment...because it is just for a moment, maybe i cross them off today, but a time is coming when i won't be able to....but have i really continued to 'work out my salvation with fear and trembling' to where God is at work within me completely transforming the entirety of my being, not just my actions, but my worldview, philosophies, way of being and thinking?
i don't know...there is much to be done within me, there is much to be transformed within me, there is much that the Holy Spirit shines itself on and calls me to surrender it, to die to self...I just pray that is a continual action.
the beauty of these stories in Daniel, especially the Sunday School type ones, it's the lesson I didn't remember understanding as a kid. yeah, God saved them from a furnace and a bunch of lions and that is absolutely wicked awesome! but the reality of the fact that God was with them. That God didn't prevent them from being chucked into the bar-b-que of a lifetime, but that in the midst of it, God showed up; God was with them. so thankful that the good news, that Jesus is Immanuel continues and always rings true. that no matter how life is shaking out, God will be with us.
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