In elementary school, we were forced to go to a nursing home and square dance with the elderly whose skin was a little too squishy and who had a peculiar odor to them.
Second-grade me did not like this activity. These people were foreign and a bit frightening.
Eventually I discovered stories of bygone eras from my grandmother and the enduring known-each-other-longer-than-I've-been-alive friendship of Bill and Frank. These people helped turn the tide from being painfully uncomfortable when in the presence of the elderly to having a reverence for them.
I love when I'm at a coffee shop and there's a group of older ladies who meet there every Tuesday to knit or crochet, discussing their lives as if none of them are ever absent from one another. I admire the hours two old men can spend playing skip-bo and eating at Golden Corral.
I like the life that my elders live.
They have a steady rhythm to their lives and that consistency makes me feel a little more alive. If I could do the same exact tradition for each major holiday, I would. If every week carried the same pattern for each day, I'd feel more grounded.
I'm fairly entranced with the idea of being consistent. It carries all of these great connotations with it, like being dependable and trustworthy because there is a repeating sameness to you.
Until recently, I would have told you that being consistent also made you steadfast -- a kind of crowning achievement to being so dependable.
That's simply not true.
You see, Daniel was steadfast. King Darius made a law that anyone who prayed to a god or man aside from him was to be thrown into the lion's den. Daniel 6:10 tells us that Daniel learned of this law, went up to his house and prayed, business as usual. There was no hesitation or break in the consistency of Daniel's faithfulness to God, and it landed him in the lion's den.
Here's the part that gets me: when King Darius was told that Daniel was to be thrown to the lions, he cried out, "May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!" He had learned of the power of God through Daniel's steadfastness. In fact, it led him to proclaim:
"People are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel,
for he is the living God,
enduring forever;
his kingdom shall never be destroyed,
and his dominion shall be to the end.
He delivers and rescues;
he works signs and wonders
in heaven and on earth,
he who has saved Daniel
from the power of the lions" (Daniel 6:26-27).
Daniel's unwavering trust in God -- the steady rhythm of faith in which he lived his life -- caused a King to command his people to worship this God*. That, my friends, is an incredible testimony to God's glory at work in Daniel.
To be completely honest, I'm nothing like Daniel. When something about my situation changes or a wrench is thrown in the plan, I don't tend to continue business as usual. In fact, I often find myself completely wrapped up in anger, grief, or excitement -- whatever kind of freakout most fits the situation -- before I even realize that I haven't even thought of God yet. Cue a coming-to-Jesus moment where I repent for once again turning to myself and my circumstances instead of the God John 16:33 talks about: "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."
What if I really lived my life believing that Jesus has overcome the world; if God was the first person I turned to every single time something tried to throw me for a loop? Then, maybe my steadfastness of faith -- that steady rhythm of trust in God -- could also be a testimony of God's power and glory.
Wouldn't it be cool to grow up into a squishy-skinned, slightly stale-smelling old person whose consistency in life was due to being near to the God who saves people from lions and not the sinful desire of an easy, comfortable life?
I'd like to be that transformed.
*We can discuss at a later time how, no, King Darius, you still actually can't command people to worship God. That's kind breaking what Deuteronomy 6 is all about, bro.
