Once again, I had a delayed reaction to a reading recommendation I received literally years ago and finished 'Thriving in Babylon' by Larry Osborne. This was a powerful book - I intend to lend it to friends and family for their enjoyment and encouragement. I wish there were a way to get non-believers to read it as well, but that's a tougher proposal as there's resistance to God on the part of people that, admittedly, have every reason to believe that Christianity is based more on judgment than on grace due to the behavior of its professed followers.
The narrative of 'Thriving in Babylon' focuses primarily on Daniel and his faith journey, which is both admirable and inspiring. Specifically, the author notes how his hopefulness, humility, and wisdom allowed him to thrive in the largely godless culture of Babylon. Hopefulness isn't willful optimism, though, as it is often understood to be today. It is founded on a deep-seated certainty that God is in control and will be victorious in the end. Similarly, humility is often understood to be lack of confidence, leading folks to hide their accomplishments from others for insubstantial reasons. Humility, though, in the Biblical sense, is more about serving others than about diminishing oneself. Finally, wisdom is also portrayed as a characteristic that has different meaning in today's culture than it had at Biblical times. For Daniel, he acted wisely when he made decisions about how to respond to the Babylonian exile he found himself in. He didn't reject obedience to those that God had granted temporary authority over him. He also didn't hide himself from his environment...he was forced to spend three years studying the occult, for example. Rather than sitting in the back of the class in silent rejection of the situation or avoiding the curriculum altogether, he pursued the required studies obediently and astutely. He didn't practice the occult, but he did excel in his studies and it gave him new credibility as well as access to Nebuchadnezzar that he would not have been given the privilege of if he had closed himself off. He chose the lesser evil and that choice, among many others he had to make, enabled him to thrive in a culture that was outright hostile to the faithful.
One of the drivers of Daniel's hope, humility, and wisdom was rooted in his faith in God. To quote from Daniel 1:1-2, "Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the Temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god." That language, written by Daniel likely later in his life, emphasizes that God was using Babylon as part of His plan. Nebuchadnezzar, despite his apparent evilness, was serving God's purpose without realizing it. God was in control, and Daniel responded by submitting himself to be patiently obedient yet steadfast in God's will. That approach is often not seen among Christians as they are wont to avoid non-righteous behaviors, people, and organizations...but that approach - one of condemnation rather than one of mercy - is not nearly as conducive to inciting dialogue about God and about life with non-believers.
This book had some powerful ideas and language. I wanted to share one statement here that particularly struck me: "The methods of the flesh and the methods of this world will have to be set aside, exchanged for the methods and weapons of the Spirit: prayer, obedient living, loving our enemies, and faithfully proclaiming the gospel."
I have tried to convert some that are close to me that have not yet found God to Christianity. I have primarily done that through testimony....in one instance, in addition to testimony, I gave a friend a copy of the book of John hoping that it would be a light to him down the road. I don't know if it will be, but I hope it will be. All we can do, though, is testify and follow Jesus in our daily life. God is the steward of His grace and every person's faith journey is uniquely between him or her and God Himself.
There's a couple of other things I wanted to note about this book. First, the author discusses darnel seed, which was often used in enemy fields as it grew a rye grass that looked an awful lot like wheat all the way up until it was nearly time to harvest....specifically, when it was too late to recover from not having a wheat harvest. If that happens, and the darnel is mixed with wheat throughout the field, it isn't practical for us to try to pull out all of the darnel. We would inevitably destroy some wheat in the process. On that note, we need to leave the weeding to Jesus and not focus on how others fall short of righteousness, but, instead, focus on how we can be merciful and engaging to those around us.
Second, the author told a humorous story about being at a restaurant with his wife. The kids started acting up and misbehaving and, after that misbehavior continued, he brought them outside, spanked them, and gave them a firm talking to. He felt he had done the right thing but the police got called. The police got called because they weren't his children. It's just an illustrative anecdote and the author assures us it never happened, but it makes a stunning point. God's reprimands are necessarily doled out to His children - not to those of the enemy. Much like how Israel was taken into captivity by Babylon, again under God's control, we encounter suffering and setbacks as Christians to prepare us for what is coming next...ultimately, we are tasked with, through espousing the gospel and loving our enemies, planting those seeds that may one day bring others closer to God.
The author mentions Carlsbad Caverns near the end of the book to illustrate how meager lights can have a brilliant impact on the total darkness that, during tours, one can be submerged in. This is a note of encouragement to the reader that, most especially when things seem to be darkest, our own light can resonate. I loved this book and look forward to sharing it with others. It was encouraging to me, too, in my failed conversion efforts, that I may be planting seeds that will someday germinate to glorify God.