Some Real Grit

 This morning, I was reading in Daniel. Oh, I've read the story many times, particularly the lion's den part. For those who grew up in church, this was a story we heard a LOT. We heard about the "three Hebrew children" and "Daniel in the Lion's Den" many times. I even remember my grandmother's old flannel graph stories. Yes, I'm that old! LOL.

I admire Daniel's spiritual grit. 

King Darius divided his kingdom into 120 provinces and set a prince to rule over each one. Then, he selected Daniel and two other dudes to supervise the princes. As normal for Daniel, he excelled. This made the other guys jealous. So jealous, they devised a wicked plot in hopes of getting Daniel killed legally. 

First, they tried to find something, anything, wrong with Daniel and how he handled his affairs. They found absolutely no way to condemn him for anything. They had to be creative in their trickery.

When they shared the plot with the king, he was so prideful that he fell for it. And the trap was laid for Daniel. Here was a righteous man, trusting God in such adverse situations, yet jealousy and pride aimed their arrows at him, hoping to bring about failure and death. 

But when Daniel heard of the edict signed by the king, he didn't change a thing. The decree was only for 30 days. Daniel could have easily said, I'll just cool it for 30 days. Problem solved. But he did NOT do it that way. It says in verse 10 of chapter 6, that when Daniel heard about the new law that said he couldn't pray to anything or anyone but the king for 30 days, he went home, knelt down AS USUAL, and prayed.

Here he was in a difficult stage of life. It would be easy to think he's already "under" in life. No family around, and the right to have a family of his own is taken away. He's a captive. He's alone. It appears everyone hated him and everything he stood for. But he still continued to pray. 

Daniel did not change because it made them uncomfortable. His relationship with God was far more important than making others feel at ease. I love that about Daniel.

As caregivers, sometimes our lives make others feel uncomfortable. They are not sure what to do with us or for us. They may not know what to say. We cannot be moved by their feelings of inadequacy. We still need to go to our room, open a window and open our hearts toward heaven and pray just like before. And the coolest part? God will meet us there every single time.

Today, I will remind myself that God doesn't skip out on the hard parts of life, even when it feels like everything is against us. When we turn to Him, He meets us right there - no matter what our "there" looks like or feels like. I want to have spiritual grit like Daniel. My hope is that when the caregiving life squeezes harder, and I feel like I can't move or breathe, I will bow my heart before God and wait for Him to meet me there. Will you join me?

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