Accidental Hero

He didn’t want to be a hero that day. The idea of being a hero did not thrill him the way it might have if he was a lot younger. There was a time when it would have excited him but not anymore. He wasn’t sure if the years in exile had anything to do with it, or having been led into captivity when he was just a youth that had scarred the natural progression of his passions and desires. But he was confident that being a hero was not his cup of tea.

Heroics are for youngsters with poetry in their mind and music on their feet, he would tell anyone who cared to listen. He had learnt long ago, ever since he could remember, that survival was not based on acts of flamboyance or by some impressive display of intellectual arrogance. Survival was possible by placing one’s faith in the Almighty God who never fails, and in talking to Him always as one does with a trustworthy friend.

And that’s what he was doing that day when he got arrested. He had simply opened the windows facing east, turned his heart and mind towards God, thanked Him for his love and faithfulness, and praised Him for never failing nor forsaking His people. He knew it was illegal to worship His God and that he was in danger of being thrown into a den of lions, but it didn’t matter because he trusted his God and knew that nothing on earth or heaven was more valuable than the relationship he had with his God.

Hence, Daniel wasn’t surprised that the lions did not touch him, but slept as soundly as the stray cats that rested in his garden. Deep down in his heart he knew that he was ‘more than a conqueror’ and that set him free from fear and made him a hero in the eyes of God’s people.