Living in a New Land

I feel like I have woken up to a new country. I hardly recognized it last week, now today our nation’s capitol city is laced with barbed wire fences encircling the Capitol alongside troops deployed to protect it. Protect it from ourselves. Some of my friends woke up today beyond relieved, ready, and reeling with excitement, while some woke up today deeply discouraged over the direction they believe we are going. Either way, the new day is here. We are awake. We are all watching. So much is going to change. In this cancel culture, there is much to be learned about thriving in a culture with people not like our own faces, beliefs, and agenda. I agree with Sarah Bauer Anderson that people are more than a position.

The book of Daniel seems like a fitting place to learn how to do this when a person find her positions and beliefs aren’t the heartbeats of the culture. Daniel of the Old Testament was a man who forcibly woke up in a new culture, with a new leader, with new values. Taken as a young man into captivity, he knew what it meant to live in a culture that wasn’t his own. Yet somehow he maintained his personal beliefs and integrity becoming a man of great influence while serving a king who did not share his.

1. He Understood God Had Given Power.

The book of Daniel opens up with a reminder that God gave the Kingdom of Judah into the hands of Babylonians. This premise set the stage for the rest of the stories of Daniel. God establishes thrones and kingdoms. There are verses all over the Bible reminding that God gives favor and position to people, yet people may never understand why. These election days have felt like that, calling us to confusing feelings wondering how has America ended up here, here with these choices. Daniel found ways to honor his pagan kings, yet not be changed by them.

2. He Fought for People Who Despised Him.

Even when Daniel, an outcast in this inner circle of the king’s magicians and wisemen, had the chance to merely save himself and his friends, he remembers and mentions these men, men that held different beliefs and practices than his own. Men, who may not do the same for Daniel.

Even though very different from him in beliefs and actions, he valued their lives.We can disagree and value each other’s lives.

Daniel did not use his strengths to destroy the other wise men or elevate himself above them. He came alongside, did work for them, and allowed them to benefit from his choices. There is so much to learn from Daniel in how we treat people who are different than us, believe differently than us, behave differently than us.

3. He Maintained His Personal Integrity

Daniel lived in a kingdom that didn’t serve God. His beliefs were tested. Yet Daniel remained diligent to the one main thing, his relationship with God. He would not bend on this, so he kept praying in the face of persecution, even when authority said he had to stop. Even when it might cost him his life, he kept being who and what he was made to be, a child of God. He was willing to die to spend time with the Creator.

4. Daniel Prayed

He prayed with friends, alone, under the watch of authority. He just kept praying. God had shown up for Daniel in mighty ways, one can easily see how this would embolden a faith. Yet, not forgetting, Daniel was a captive, unable to leave, working for a pagan king. Didn’t God disappoint Daniel by allowing this? Daniel had been in such a position in Judah to do for good for his own people, yet here he is advising a pagan king on dreams and visions, and being persecuted for following God. I love the mental image of a defiant Daniel, but both times when he goes against the king, its on bended knee in prayer. When Daniel took his stand, it was kneeling in prayer. I want to remember that prayer accomplishes things for myself, my community, my country.