Essentially, what we can learn from Daniel and his 3 friends' lives are how they successfully adapted to the pagan, immoral and dominant Babylonian culture - and yet remained faithful to God. Successful, yet faithful. Faithful, yet successful. So we Christians today can learn from the patterns of people successful by God's standards, both Jews and Christians, in the Bible.
Consider the impact of godly AND successful men in a nation - for example, did you know that the former head of the Singapore Government's civil service, a truly world-class administrative service, is a very staunch Christian? Mr Lim Siong Guan (hope I spelled his name correctly!) is that man. :) Whoa. So inspired when I heard that.
1. Daniel and his 3 friends knew where to draw the line.
Not when, but where. This requires that we are familiar with Scripture.
As an illustration, Alan asked us to define what aspects does a culture include, and drew up a list of these aspects:
Culture:
Arts
Sciences
Languages
Names
Food
Drink
He then drew a line.
Culture:
Arts
Sciences
Languages
Names
--------
Food
Drink
That was a real eye-opener to me. He said, "The upper half, Daniel and his friends LEARNT, and learnt very well. But, the lower part, they refused to assimilate the Babylonian food into their systems."
The reason is because eating and drinking here, in our context today, refers to our meeting our most basic and primal human needs. Thus, the application for us Christians, in the context of the corporate world, is that we learn as much as we can, the culture of the corporate world, learn to speak its "languages" (i.e. the lingo and terms), and even willingly accept the names that the corporate world assigns to us with all their connotations [both positive and negative] (e.g. "trader", "engineer", "manager" and - gasp! - even "lawyer" and "insurance agent" :P), just like how Daniel and his friends willingly accepted their Babylonian names (which had references to pagan gods).
But! Like Daniel and co. who refused to defile themselves with the Babylonian food, we too must refuse to feed our primal appetites - e.g. lust, power, greed, corruption, dishonesty, envy, pride, sloth, superiority, insecurity. We need to draw the line, and feed our needs GOD'S WAY. And the world will be able to see the difference at the end of it all, when they compare the results of those who live by God's Way versus those who live by worldly ways.
The reason Daniel and his friends knew where to draw the line was because they were familiar with the Scriptures, and they also were confident in God's power.
A caveat here though. We are not talking about succeeding for success' sake. No, the reason we, as the people of God, want to succeed beyond the norm is because we want to glorify God in whatever we do. Doesn't matter whether we are serving big or serving small - what counts in God's eyes is that we serve to the very best - and beyond!
Cool! :D
2. My decisions change my destiny.
The thing is, some of us may groan, "Well, Daniel and his friends were well-built, handsome, talented... even the Bible says so mah! But we're not like that... and well-built? I was NEVER well-built in the first place!"
Personally, I am one of those people who say that. :P
But does our background and lack of talents really matter? There is a useful equation that shows what really counts: our decisions. Not our circumstances, but our decisions amidst these circumstances.
E + R = O
(Events + Response = Outcome)
Alan shared the example of a brother, A, one of our leaders in church. He had a very bad background, but he received Christ while in prison. After his release, he decided to study hard, and eventually became well-educated. He is now a voracious learner and reads many, many books in a year - and if I recall correctly, he's not a university graduate - yet he has probably read more books in a month than we university grads read in a year! As such, he is highly able to engage others on current affairs and the like.
******
So an action point that I was sharing with Seeto was that I want to read more books, especially those that are useful in our line of work. And oh yeah, Seeto asked me whether my company has a library. Hee hee! Thank God, yes, I think my company has a library... so I shall now seize the (God-given) opportunity to read as much as I can for Jesus! :D
Also, from point 1, I realised that I don't really know how to speak in the worldly "languages" very well. Perhaps it's simply my newness to the working world, but I want to learn more! At least want to thank God I know a bit of the "language" and "lingo" of the corporate IT world more e.g. UML, design patterns, SOA and the like. Because it's really important in the workplace where I work in.
But hee, also cannot be impatient. God spoke to some of us during our closing prayer that we are eager, but impatient, to grow. If Daniel and his 3 friends, brilliant though they were, took THREE years to learn the ways of the sophisicated Babylonian culture, then... how much longer we have to learn today's highly complex modern cultures!
But if God is for us, who can be against us?! :D
1. Daniel and his 3 friends knew where to draw the line.
2. My decisions change my destiny.
Yup! Just want to write all this down, because I really want to grow to be a value-added and useful member of the society God has place me in... so that I can bring glory to God and feel His pleasure in me as I work for Him! :D Yeah!
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