This morning as I sat in the airport and surveyed my surroundings, almost every head was bent downward to a screen. Information flow was constant. Glowing screens in people’s palms, on their laps, on the walls, above our heads on monitors. Such an ominous-sounding word: monitor. Everything seems recorded as if for future purposes. But almost no one was looking anyone else in the eye. Something, it seems to me, is being lost therein. A diminishing of personhood is occurring wherein the gadgets of convenience have become taskmasters for mindlessness.

I pulled out my copy of Scripture, as I had time still before my flight arrived. I was in Daniel again. I reread chapter one again where Nebuchadnezzar changed the names of his captives. But verse 17 of the opening chapter gave me such encouragement. Even after refusing the Babylonian diet, and after only vegetables and water for ten days, verse 17 reads “God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.”

And in verse 19, Daniel and his three friends “stood before the king.” Catch that? Prisoners were given wisdom from God, and stood before the king. But all that occurred after they were first courageous. They first were obedient. They first counted the costs.

Information is one thing. Wisdom is quite another. Courage is necessary.

Daniel and his friends stood before the king. As wise men. As those who were set apart for a special purpose. Almost as if they were to bear witness to the truth. Almost as if God was using them for his good and holy purposes. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.