The Hour He Refused to Move
“Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help.”
— Daniel 6:10-11 (NIV)
The men behind this law had a promotion to stop. Their rival was about to be set over the whole kingdom. They combed his conduct in office for anything chargeable and came up empty. So they built a law around the one habit they were sure he would never drop. The ban ran thirty days and no longer, and breaking it meant being thrown to lions. Waiting out four weeks would have cost him nothing that anyone could name. His rivals already knew the routine, which is exactly why the trap worked. According to the account, the order could not be taken back once it was signed. The king worked until sundown looking for a way to save him, and failed. The city he faced had been burned decades earlier, and its temple was gone. He had been carried into that foreign court as a young man. Faith shows in the ordinary thing you keep doing when nobody is making you and it has started to cost.
Nothing enforces the small things, so the small things go first. Maybe at work you keep quiet about what you believe, because saying it would only start something. Maybe you stopped praying at the table after somebody made a remark about it. Maybe nobody in your home would ever ask whether you prayed today, so the evening passes and nothing happens. Maybe you keep putting it off until the house goes quiet, and the quiet only arrives when you have nothing left. Jesus kept praying on the night it was most dangerous, and he also got up before daylight to pray alone where nobody could see. What you keep doing when nobody is checking is what you actually believe.
Three minutes at a time you fix now
- 1Pick the time right now, an exact hour and minute today, and write it where you will see it. When it arrives, stop what you are doing and give God three minutes, even if somebody else is in the room, and even if nobody will ever know you did it.
- 2If your day has no hours you control, because of shifts, small children or someone you care for at home, tie the three minutes to something that will happen anyway: right after you put your plate in the sink, right after you put the children down, or right after you turn off the light for the night.
God, I let the quiet things slide, because nothing makes me keep them. Today I picked a time, and I want to be there when it comes. It will probably land at an awkward moment. Help me stop anyway and give you those three minutes. Nobody will check on me tonight, so I am asking you to hold me to it. Thank you for listening at an ordinary hour.
Today I will stop at the hour I just picked and hold three minutes there, and I will not move it, even if it lands badly and even if nobody notices.
Why did Daniel not simply wait out the thirty days?
The ban expired after a single month, so waiting would have been safe and cost him nothing anyone could name. He treated his fixed hour as something not worth postponing, even for four weeks, even with lions attached to it.
Why did his rivals go after his religion instead of his work?
They had already gone through his conduct as an administrator and found nothing they could charge him with. He was about to be set over the whole kingdom, and the one habit they were sure of was the one they built a law around.
Why fix an exact time instead of praying whenever I get a moment?
A time you set can be kept or missed, and by evening you know which. Whenever I get a moment cannot fail, which is why it usually never happens. Three minutes kept at an hour that suits you badly trains something different.