New Perspective on an Old Story

The past few days have been a bit of an interesting twist as I have been discovering what I need to do in order to establish some spiritual disciplines in my life as well as other disciplines that help me be closer with Jesus. So, to that end, last night, I began by turning off the Bears game for the last 4:30 to read from Forgotten God, Francis Chan's latest offering to the world. More on that later. Then this morning, I was getting myself to an awakened state and I was just convicted to read the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So I turned to Daniel 3 and began to re-read the story of these three friends that were contemporaries of Daniel, even friends of Daniel, yet were at a much different place King Nebuchadnezzar than that of the writer of the story.

This week I am prepping a message for Wednesday that includes challenging to students to walk the halls of their schools while actually living out their faith; giving thought to the reason that they live while they interact with those that may not have the same hope in eternity. Why, you may ask, does this connect to these three guys? Well, I'm glad you asked because I don't think that it applies to these three guys. I think that there are many lessons to be taken from this story that apply to the message that will come on Wednesday. However, The biggest thing that I took from my reading today hit me like a ton of bricks.

Youth, as a term, has begun to define a period in our lives in which we are released from responsibility (besides regular chores PERHAPS) and rarely face the fact that these are probably the most important years to be making decisions about life and priorities in life. I experienced this in my own life. I never really had to make difficult decisions or take much responsibility for myself when I was a teen. As a matter of fact, I lived a pretty carefree life. I biggest concern was making sure that Mom and Dad were happy and that the people around me liked me enough to invtie me over to their house for the next big gathering. Then college came around and I was quickly faced with decisions about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, who I would marry, what I would do to repay the institutions of my education and what political party I would affiliate myself with for the rest of my life.

So here are four guys, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah who are your typical popular person. Not because they wanted to be, but because of their parents' position in the nation of Israel that get selected by a chief of the court. But these guys make a decision, early in their lives to live out their faith; to be real people of God. And because they decided to do that, they learned what their God was about, what He had done and what He promised to do. They were solid in what they believed. And then, society (Ashpenaz, the chief of the King's court) names them something different than their original names; their original purpose. The Society that these four friends are thrust into tries to define them and give them different roles than what God had a plan for; change their stance and give them little responsibility (they were made servants of the King).

What I have taken from this is the need for students of this generation to rise up and fight the lack of challenge that they have been faced with; the lack of responsibility and trust to do great things. I was thinking this morning that I live so vicariously through my students. And generally, I would say that is a bad thing; whether it is a dad who is trying to relive his days as a stud, or not so stud, quarterback through his son, or any other type of situation. I want to see these students break free of the seemingly unbreakable chains that bottle students up and jade them into thinking that they aren't able to accomplish much of anything. I guess you can consider me a hypocrite.

It's time to break the twine that is holding us all from doing great things! This world has no power over me becaue of the power that lives in me and you. May you see Him alive in your life today.

¹⁶Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? -1 Corinthians 3:16