Dancing on Your Dash: Dancing with the Lions

It takes only about five minutes spent almost anywhere to see it: See what? Christians and the culture are clashing. It’s alarming, but rest assured, it isn’t new. The Bible gives us an ancient and powerful — and may I add hopeful — example for living in a hostile culture.

Hello friend, I’m Kim Crabill. I’m delighted to welcome you back to Stregnthen Your Walk and our series, “Dancing on Your Dash” —discerning when and discovering how God has choreographed our daily steps to fulfill the incredible plan He has declared for each of our lives.

Watch Dancing on Your Dash with Kim Crabill

Last time we met Daniel as a new exile in a godless culture. His devotion to God was helping him dance on that fine line of knowing how much to conform to the ways of his new “home” and how to respectfully resist. He must have danced on that line with tremendous grace, because as we read in the Old Testament book of Daniel, the king had big plans for Daniel’s promotion. But the king’s advisors weren’t happy about that so they looked for a way to smear Daniel’s reputation. But there was problem … Daniel was blameless. His only flaw was his faith in God. The advisors; therefore, manipulated the king into passing a decree that anyone who prayed to any god or human during the next 30 days, except for His Majesty, the King, would be thrown into a lions’ den.

What would Daniel do? What did he do? In Daniel 6:10-12, we read: “Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.”

Of course, we know what troublemakers will do — they run to tell. So, the schemers ran to tell the king. The king was distressed, but his position required that he uphold the law he had signed. So, into the lion’s den went Daniel. The king’s last words to Daniel were, “May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!”

After a sleepless night, the king hurried at dawn to the lions’ den and called out, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to rescue you from the lions?” We know from our Bibles that God did indeed rescue Daniel. And it should be noted that Daniel didn’t have even a scratch on him!

Friend, we may not face the threat of a lion’s den, but we do sometimes face the kinds of opposition that can bring our Dash Dance to a quick and painful halt. There are those who see us struggle to do good — to be good — and sneer, “I thought she was a Christian!” There are scoffers who will notice our faith being tested and snort, “Let’s see how pious those God lovers are now!”

Some people will be jealous of our faith. Some will find it offensive. Some will be mystified that we continue to cling to God in the most excruciating times. We’ll be tempted to hide our faith. Abandon the dance — at least for a while — and become wallflowers. Invisible, and therefore safe … sort of. But Daniel, instead of hiding his acts of devotion to God, prayed in front of an open window as he had always done, offering a clear view to one and all of how much he loved his God.

We’ll be tempted to wound those who wound us, to lash out. But we don’t see that from Daniel either. There is no record of him retaliating — with words or schemes — against his accusers. He remained respectful to the king and wished good things for him, including the greatest good of all … that the king would come to know God.

Daniel’s example compels us to ask, “What will we do when we’re dancing to please the Lord but the culture tries to cut in?”

Here’s one thing we can do: We can pray and ask God to help us dance with Him in such a way that those who reject Him will be drawn into the beauty of His dance.  

See you next time friends … and remember, you can Strengthen Your Walk by saying “Yes” to the One who invites you to dance.

Watch Now!