(27) And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for some days. Then I rose and went about the king's business, but I was appalled by the vision and did not understand it.
This is another summary of Daniel's reaction to an incredible vision he had of the future. He saw how kingdoms would rise and fall and then he even had Gabriel speak to him. Again, this is something incomprehensible to us and this verse gives us just a little taste of the effect it had on Daniel.
What strikes me is that after a time of recovery he went about the king's business. Maybe my problem is that I try to do work in the time I should be recovering, but were it me I would have a very hard time going about my business after having a vision like that. I think back to last Friday when I was consumed by something so trivial as the shipment of my iPod Touch. I was hoping to see it arrive in the area on Friday so I could pick it up, but I had to wait until Saturday afternoon. I didn't lose sleep over this, but my company definitely lost work over this.
I think Daniel was a better worker than I am. In fact, I'm pretty sure of it. It's common to use Daniel 1 as an example of how we need to be bold about our faith and priorities in the workplace. I think that is all well and good. However, we also need to recognize that Daniel stayed focused on what he had to do when he was supposed to be working. Here in 21st century America we all tend to think of ourselves as pretty dedicated and hard-working, but I suspect that if we wrote down what we were doing every 10 minutes we might discover otherwise. I know I would.
No comments:
Post a Comment