another day. another post.

i love this city.

usually the city makes people talk faster. usually the city makes people speak more. usually the city makes people say less.

i've had instances today where i've really wanted to expound in many ways on the things that are going on inside my head and in my heart, but i haven't been able to.

when i was talking with adrienne a few calls back, she said that every time she talked to me on the phone i was talking a little bit slower, and with a little more deliberation in my words. she said my pauses were longer inbetween phrases. that it was delightful to hear it in my voice that God has made me at peace here.

which is amazing... because as at peace as i am, i feel completely the opposite so much of the time. but i feel at peace at the same time.

love.
joy.
peace.
patience.
kindness.
goodness.
faithfulness.
gentleness.
self control.

the israelites were people chosen by God to be set apart from other nations. God gave them a new way of living that was supposed to show the rest of the world what God was like.

the israelites were under the rule of a foreign king... a few hundred years after king solomon disobeyed God. their new king was nebuchadnezzar. the dude was ruthless. he would cut people into pieces, or even throw them into a fire if they disobeyed him.

so king nebuchadnezzar told his officials to find a bunch of handsom men from among the israelites who were smart and had their wits about them. they would serve in the king's palace. after three years of learning the culture of king nebuchadnezzar's people... they would enter into the king's service.

among the israelites chosen to learn the culture of the babylonians were daniel, hananiah, mishael, and azariah. the king gave them new names... names that would classify them as babylonian instead of israelites. names that were intended to strip them of their identities and reform them into new ones. so they became shadrach, meshach, and abednego. and daniel was renamed belteshazzar. but unfortunately for the babylonians, only God had the right to rename people and have them become different people because of it.

the renaming of daniel and his three friends, and the stripping of their culture in order to have them relearn something new didn't work. they still remained faithful to their God. they still knew that they were set apart. the israelites had all sorts of food requirements they needed to keep. king nebuchadnezzar demanded that they eat food that broke these requirements.

daniel understood the complexity of these requirements. daniel had an official who was tending to him and his friends. God caused the official to show favor to daniel. instead of him going into a dissertation of all the foods they were allowed to eat, and the foods they were not allowed to eat, daniel just tells the guard, "feed us nothing but vegetables and water for ten days, then make your own judgement" God had made daniel wise.

at the end of the ten days, it was easy to tell that daniel and his friends looked better than anyone else in the kingdom. everyone was then put on the same diet. God blessed daniel and his friends with all sorts of wisdom and understand. they rose to the top of their class and were noticed by the king. they were given high positions in babylonian society.

love.
joy.
peace.
patience.
kindness.
goodness.
faithfulness.
gentleness.
self control.