Judy wasn’t buying it. She asked why I write this blog but don’t include anything personal. I said it was because I want to share what I’m learning from the Bible, not make it all about me.

“Be vulnerable,” she said. “See what happens.”

I’d been talking to her about the fact that only one person read this blog the day before. Plus there haven’t been a lot of readers lately, even though I’m writing my head off, so I asked her what she really thought of it

“I want to read more of your story,” she said. “I love it when you tell how the Bible impacts your day-to-day life.”

Blogging experts say that you get more followers with regular posting, and daily posting, if you can swing it. I’ve been writing almost daily for two weeks and not much is happening. But that one reader two days ago has me thinking–surely, I haven’t got much to lose.

I don’t read the Bible so much to find out what happened to Daniel in the lion’s den as I do to find out what’s in his story for me. Maybe you’re the same. So here goes.

Daniel 6

This is a story full of action and intrigue and even a surprise ending. (I’m always a little horrified that the wives and kids become Lion Crunch before they hit bottom.) It’s easy to read “Daniel and the Lion’s Den” as a distant, dusty Bible story and turn the page. How nice for Daniel. How nice for the king. God is faithful. Isn’t that wonderful?

But I want more than a nice story with a happy ending when I read the Bible. I want help with my story. I want to know what’s in it for me.

So here’s my takeaway:

Daniel wasn’t perfect. The Bible doesn’t say he made his bed and had regular dental visits. But what it does say is that he was 100% devoted to having time with God. This is what grabs me: Daniel never let a day go by when he forgot to talk to God. I’m guessing that it’s not because he was so dedicated that he did it, but because he was so desperate.

Daniel suffered.

He’d been forced to leave his home and country and live in a foreign nation, where he’s also forced to go through the king’s propaganda program so he can take his place among the elite—the diviners and magicians, fortunetellers and witches—which tells you a lot about a culture, when you think about it. I’m guessing a sorcery community was a tough place to work and live.

If he didn’t know it before he arrived, Daniel’s learned since, that time with God was the only way he’d survive. It wasn’t to show off his godliness that he prayed three times a day. It was to show up with the God who met with him there. Daniel wasn’t afraid of losing his life to pray; he knew that living depended on having time with God daily. And he’d rather give up living than give up living by praying.

I love how God rewards him: I’m a sucker for a happy ending. But even if the ending had been different, it would still be a good one for Daniel. He lived as if he had nothing to lose, because he had the one thing no one could take away. Take away his work, his prestige, his relationships, his hobbies and what’s left? Everything that matters, as it turns out. Knowing God and having a relationship with him makes everything else irrelevant.

As I’m writing this last paragraph, something feels familiar…

When Buck had his stroke, both our lives upended. Suddenly, there was only one thing for me to do each day and that was to be at the hospital with him. I like my life and the things I get to do in it, but all of that stopped when Buck did—and at first, I was wobbly. I wanted to be supportive, but truth to tell, I also wanted my tidy life back.

Which would I choose?

I went home one afternoon for some *me-time and did yard work, of all things, while I talked to God about it. And what I realized as I weeded and watered was that I hadn’t lost anything in sticking by Buck in that hospital. In fact, I’d gained something better than I’d set aside—a vital role as his helper plus a whole hospital of people worth knowing.

Everything had changed about how I lived, but nothing that mattered had changed one bit. God was still God and I was still his, and hanging out with him in the morning still went on for me, no matter where I put my pillow and toothbrush. The lions that threatened to gobble me up in angsty “what about me?” questions, shut their mouths and went to sleep.

There was Stephen at the front desk and Elizabeth the nurse and Brenda across the hall and Colleen in the cafeteria and on and on they went. Real people I bumped into and had begun to know and love, not to mention the help my husband needed from me and me only.

When God stroked Buck, he stroked me. He reminded me he’s the God who makes life worth living. Buck’s new journey wasn’t just for him, it’s for me, too, because God is molding and making both of us just the way we need it. There’s freedom in knowing it’s not on me to find my best life. My best life is the one God puts before me each morning, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.

I find a lot of peace believing God’s the one who stroked us: I can trust he’s got good reasons. He’s also the one who fends off enemies and shuts up fears. He meets me in the night to give me sleep; he meets me in the morning to greet me. He’s the “savior and rescuer” Darius wrote about, and he “performs astonishing miracles in heaven and on earth,” and in this heart of mine that doesn’t quite believe he matters most yet, Da 6:25-27 MSG.

But I’m getting a clue—God is the one-and-only I can’t live without.

2 Peter 3

The end is right around the corner, so “do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace.”  God’s delay in not bringing the world’s end today is so that everyone has the chance to repent and be saved, “he doesn’t want anyone lost,” 2 Pe 3:9, 14 MSG.  

Be alert. Pay attention. Live like you’re dying (OK, he doesn’t actually say that, but that’s what I’m hearing). Let petty things go and the things that distract you from living the best life you know. Your choices matter.

Our five kids and their families will be with us for Christmas. I’m currently struggling with how much money to spend for gifts and how much time to spend getting ready.

But Peter throws a monkey wrench in Christmas. I mean, how much does wrapping and decorating really matter in the whole scheme of this chapter? Not much, I’m thinking.

God, curb my urge to make Christmas all about me and how all-out I go in the guise of loving my family. Let what matters most be really loving them right where they are. Make me full of your “purity and peace.” There’s a lot to do here: you better get started.

Psalm 119:129-144

I’m glad God’s the one who can “break open his words and let the light shine out, let[ting] ordinary people see the meaning,” Ps 119:130 MSG.

Otherwise, why bother reading them, right? It’s not in me to decipher what he’s saying here, but he breaks it open and lays it before me. And if he does it for ordinary-me, surely he does it for ordinary-you, and ordinary-everybody else, too.

Proverbs 28:21-22

Showing favoritism hurts others. Being stingy hurts yourself. So give others “bestie” treatment, and let go of some dollars. God gets the “what’s in it for me” angle: you’ll help others and help yourself while you’re at it.

Prayer

God, thanks for meeting me when I don’t know where I am. Thanks for shutting lion mouths and giving me peace here. Thanks for reminding me that life’s about what you’re doing and joining you in it. Break out more of your shiny words for me.

In Jesus’ name.

Passages in Daniel, 2 Peter, Psalms, and Proverbs are selected for today in The One Year Bible.

*For the-rest-of-the-me-story, see “Home Alone” at https://onetruelove.blog/2023/10/20/home-alone/.