Growing chives.

   

     Every year I attempt to grow herbs.  And every year most all of them die.  However, this year, my chives are thriving.  And.... I think I've maybe used them 3 times total.  I don't even know if I really like chives.  But seeing those green shoots grow makes me feel good.  I suppose it's because in a way it makes me feel self sufficient.  I don't need you grocery store, I shall grow my own chives!!!  Which is funny really, because I don't hunt, or have a dairy cow tied out back.  Me growing my own chives makes me about as self sufficient as Kobe Bryant recording a rap album makes him a musician.   I digress.
     Really, it's funny that any of us truly thinks we can be self sufficient.  I've been reading about Daniel in the Bible and it's fascinating to me.  If anyone could boast of being self sufficient it could have been Daniel.  You see Daniel was an exile.  King Nebuchadnezzar took Daniel and many others from Jerusalem back to Babylon with the intention of assimilating them into the Babylonian culture to create a dependency upon the royal court.  They were given new names that were after the Babylonian gods and were schooled in the language, mythological literature and culture of Babylon.  And they were given food from the king's table, to remind them constantly of the source of their daily bread.  Well, Daniel refused to eat the food from the king.  He wanted to avoid the luxury of eating from the king's table as a way of protecting himself from being completely assimilated.  He wanted to retain his distinctive identity as a Jewish exile and more importantly, as a dependent child of God- reminding himself at every meal that he was dependent for his food and very life on the Creator of the universe, not King Nebuchadnezzar.  And God blessed him and provided the nourishment needed.  In fact it says the King found him to be "ten times better" than the exiles who were living high off the king's table. (Daniel 1:20).   
      Then later, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and demands his magicians, astrologers and wise men tell him his dream and its interpretation.  Of course no human could possibly do this.  Well, King Nebuchadnezzar was crazy, so he commanded all the wise men be destroyed.  (This includes Daniel).  Daniel hears of this and requests to meet with the king so he can tell him his dream and interpretation.  WHAT!  Daniel was not super human.  He wasn't a mind reader, he didn't know what to tell the king.  But he did know Jesus.  And he went forward in faith that somehow God would provide.  And He did.  Big time.  God revealed to Daniel the dream and the interpretation.  King Nebuchadnezzar was elated with Daniel.  At this time, if I were Daniel, I would have held my head high and declared what fools all the other so called "wise men" were.  Not Daniel.  Daniel knew where his source of life came from.  He says, "No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days." (Daniel 2:28)  I love Daniel's unabashed position. 

     Over and over again throughout the book of Daniel you will see examples of Daniel declaring God-sufficiency.  When Daniel heard that anyone caught petitioning any god other than King Darius would immediately be thrown into the lion's den, he went home, and with his windows open, he got down on his knees three times a day praying and giving thanks to God as he did every day before.  Not out of obstinacy, but out of utter God-sufficiency.  He knew that it wasn't King Darius that was keeping him alive.  He knew that each breath was given and ordained by the God of the universe.  Therefore, any decree or law set by man, king or no king, was not greater or stronger than God's purpose.  As many of you know, Daniel was thrown into the lion's den, and God did protect him.  And that's great.  But greater still was King Darius's response to Daniel's purposing to live a God-sufficient life.  "I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for He is the living God, enduring forever; His kingdom shall never be destroyed, and His dominion shall be to the end.  He delivers and rescues; He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth." (Daniel 6:26-27)

     We truly are dependent on the Lord of heaven and earth for everything.  I wonder if any of us in our narcissistic culture even begins to understand and live in this truth.  In one of the dreams that Daniel interprets for King Belshazzar he says, "And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored." (Daniel 5:23b)

    Oh Father, forgive me for praising gods that do not see or hear or know.   May I rest and move and live out of God sufficiency.