I was talking to my youngest daughter about Daniel the other day. She is struggling with the move – understandably. Florida is home. It’s where her friends and family live, where she has made memories, where she has grown from a child into a beautiful young teenager. It’s where she thought she’d go to high school and college. She doesn’t want to leave Florida, where she is known and loved, to go to California, where everyone will be a stranger.
So we talked about Daniel. He, too, was forced – against his will – to leave home and go to a foreign land. He, too, was likely a young , good-looking teenager, who had to leave behind great friends and family, special places, and all the comforts of the “known”. He was human, just like us, so I’m sure Daniel shed tears, got angry, asked “why me??” Like my daughter, he might have said, “Why can’t I just stay in one place like normal people?”
But God had a plan for Daniel – just like He has a plan for my daughter, and for all of us. Daniel didn’t know, when he was taken away, that he would rise to great power in Babylon. He didn’t know that his friends would be thrown in a fiery furnace or that he would be trapped in a lions’ den. He didn’t know God would give him prophetic ability that would point this pagan country to the true, living God. He didn’t know the words he wrote would be read thousands of years later, that they’d be quoted by the mom of a heartbroken teen who is having to leave the familiar for the unfamiliar. Daniel just obeyed – maybe reluctantly, at first. We don’t know. But we do know he took the faith of his fathers and made it his own. We know he was so sold out for God that he willingly risked his life to keep worshiping Him.
I love reading about men like Daniel and being reminded that the God who moved Daniel from Judah to Babylon is the same God who moving us from Florida to California. He is with us – His Holy Spirit is IN us! – and He has a purpose in this move. God used Daniel to make His name known in Babylon. He used Daniel in great – though sometimes uncomfortable – ways to glorify Him. And that, my friends, is why we are here: to glorify God – however, wherever, He chooses.
Maybe you’re not moving across the country. But, maybe, like my daughter, you are facing a difficult situation – one you didn’t ask for, don’t want, but that is thrust upon you, anyway. Dare to be a Daniel! Cling to God, trust Him, worship Him. He has great plans for you! They may not be “comfortable”, but they are good. Because He is good. And He is with you every single step of your journey.
