Back in the days when people actually kept address books -- I mean real hard-copy books and not an app on your phone -- some of my friends and family complained that over half of their “G” pages were former addresses of mine. It was probably true, as a young man I went through a lot of transitions. When I was in college and then graduate school, it was moving from one apartment to another. Then it was moving from one job to another. Until I became a priest, I was never at a job for more than 3 years. Even since becoming a priest, I have been moved from one assignment to another. Hopefully I will be here at Resurrection for a good long time.
All of us go through transitions in our lives. Whether it is a new school, a new job, new friends, or a new relationship, transitions are a part of life. Some are really big, and while exciting, can also be stressful. So as a Christian, what are key things to remember to help us make successful transitions?
Today’s hero is a help to us in learning how to make transitions. As we continue with our message series, “Liars, Cheaters, Cowards & Other Bible Heroes,” this week we are going to meet the prophet Daniel.
Last week we mentioned that after King Solomon, the Jewish Kingdom was split into two kingdoms; the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Both kingdoms had good and bad kings, times when they remained faithful to the Lord, and times when they wandered far from Him. Last week we looked at the prophet Elijah who was sent to King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom. While the preaching of Elijah did lead to some reform and renewal of the Covenant with the Lord, it did not last long, and the Northern Kingdom fell back into idolatry, and was eventually conquered by the Assyrians and many of the people were exiled.
This week we are going to turn our attention to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. It generally had more good kings than bad kings, and that is why it existed several hundred years longer than the Northern Kingdom. However, it too started to drift more and more into idolatry and thinking that they could handle things just fine on their own without God.
Naturally this lead to disaster, and they were eventually conquered by the Babylonians. Daniel was a young, Jewish man of noble birth who was growing up in Jerusalem right at the time when the Babylonians conquered Judah. After conquering Jerusalem, the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar decides to start to exile the rulers and upper classes of Jerusalem. This was to discourage a revolt, and to start to replace Jewish customs and culture with Babylonian culture. Nebuchadnezzar has Daniel, and three of his friends, taken from their home in Jerusalem, transported hundreds of miles to Babylon, given new names, and told that they would be schooled in the Babylonian culture so that they could enter into the service of the king. Talk about a transition!
Immediately Daniel faces a challenge. King Nebuchadnezzar has allotted a portion of food and wine from his table to feed his new servants. The problem is the food is not kosher; violating the dietary laws of the Covenant. Daniel, and his three friends, resolve in their hearts that they are not going to violate the Covenant by eating non-kosher food. One translation of the Bible states it this way, “Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the king’s food.” The chamberlain put in charge of training Daniel and the other new servants is not happy, but Daniel and his friends propose a test; they will eat nothing by vegetables and water for 10 days, and then compare how they look in comparison to the other young men who ate the portion of food the king gave them. The chamberlain did so, and found that Daniel and his friends looked healthier than the others, so he allowed them to continue to keep kosher. Daniel trusted that if he did what was right, the Lord would take care of him.
This is the first principle for navigating transitions that Daniel teaches us: transitions often tempt us to compromise our principles, so purpose in your heart to stick to your principles. When I was 16-years-old I was a Congressional Page in Washington, DC. It was the first time I was living on my own, not under my parents supervision. School started at 6 AM, so that we could finish in time to go perform our duties in the House of Representatives. Often we did not get out of work until after 8 PM. For most of the other Pages, the weekends were for sleeping in, and partying. But I knew that I should keep Holy the Lord’s Day, so every Sunday I got up and went to Mass. The first key to navigating transitions is to purpose in our hearts to honor God and ourselves with our decisions.
Another incident in Daniel’s life teaches us the other two principles for navigating transitions. Sometime after Daniel was “trained” to serve the king, the king had a dream that disturbed him. He wanted to find someone to help him interpret what the dream meant, but he also did not want a lot of “meaningless” spiritual talk. So he gathered together all his wise men, and told them that he wanted them to interpret his dream, but he was not going to tell what the dream was. Of course they told him that they couldn’t do it, so King Nebuchadnezzar says, if none of them can do it, he is going to kill all of them and burn down their houses.
Daniel did not want to die, so he tells the king, “Give me a little time. I know that my God can do this.” He then goes to his three friends, and asks them to pray, imploring God for His mercy and help. Daniel also goes and prays on his own. The Lord does reveal to Daniel both the dream and the interpretation of the dream, and King Nebuchadnezzar is very happy.
This highlights the other two principles for navigating transitions. Like Daniel, it is important for us to find people in our lives who will support us, people who will pray with us, listen to us, give us advice, and when necessary challenge us.
As Christians, it is a good idea to participate in a faith sharing group. I know that in the past, many of you participated in RENEW. Some of you may belong to other such groups. We are going to be trying to start up some new small, faith-sharing groups in the parish. These groups will hopefully meet every week, and we will provide them discussion questions based on the weekly message. As you start to meet regularly with the same people, trust will build, as well as friendships. I belong to such a group of priests; we meet each month to support each other in our ministry, and at times to challenge each others’ blind spots.
Finally, to navigate through transitions we also need to have our own personal prayer life. Too often we put prayer aside, and only turn to it when there is a crisis. But as we saw with Elijah last week, God usually speaks to us in a small, still voice, so we need to develop the habit of prayer in order to recognize God’s voice in our lives. All of us should try to find a time and place for personal prayer each and every day.
Scripture tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. So whatever transition we are facing in our lives now, if we remember the principles of purposing our hearts to honor God and ourselves, of turning to a group of God-fearing friends, and spending time in personal prayer, then God will be right there with you to help you navigate through the transition. Nothing will be able to separate you from His love.