Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 13 The reward for faithfulness. Read Daniel 2:48-49. As we close out this incredible chapter, we see a very interesting statement, that if we’re not careful, we’ll misunderstand. Having worked for much of my life in the business world, I’ve seen people get promotions and move through the ranks all because they were friends with people or networked with the right people. We see all the time that favors seem to be passed around and bestowed on those just because they are friends of the person in charge. At first glance, that almost seems like what is happening here. The king is so overjoyed and…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 12 Recognition. Read Daniel 2:46-47 Daniel finally finishes telling the king what his dream was and the interpretation. The king is in shock. He immediately has to recognize that Daniel’s God is the one and true God. I almost wonder if perhaps the king was trying to weed out and replace all his wise men by setting a task that he was so sure they would fail at. The beginning of the chapter mentioned that this was only the second year of his reign, so it’s certainly a possibility that he was using this as a tactic to make replacements in a politically strategic way.…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 11 The everlasting kingdom. Read Daniel 2:44-45. God shares the message of Jesus at every opportunity, and so should we. As Daniel finishes up his interpretation of the dream that the king had, we see the foreshadowing of the coming of Christ. Daniel explains the kingdoms that are going to come after the current one. These will be the different rulers and empires that will be over the land. God then shares that there will be a kingdom that will be established that wasn’t created by man and that is going to be greater than every single kingdom. God was sharing the message of the…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 10 Giving credit, part 2. Read Daniel 2:29-43. Do you ever have to repeat yourself? As a parent, I know I’ve said the same thing to my kids multiple times. There have been moments I have been tempted to record myself saying those things so that I could just play them back each time they needed to be told. While repeating things can sometimes be really challenging, we also tend to repeat things that we want to emphasize or that we really enjoy. I also tell my kids that I love them a lot and I’ve never thought of that as a negative. Repeating things…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 9 Give credit appropriately. Read Daniel 2:24-28. As a leader, we must be diligent to ensure that we give the proper credit to those who have provided the ideas. I have been part of multiple situations where I wanted leaders take credit for the ideas or work of someone else. Instead, leaders should be the first in line to give credit to the appropriate people. Daniel has spent time in prayer and God has revealed the answer and the response needed. But, instead of going to the king and claiming to be the one who has the answer, Daniel make sure that the king and…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 8 Praise. Read Daniel 2:19-23. Daniel does exactly what he says he’s going to do. He and all of his friends go and pray to God that God will reveal the answer and give them a way out of the situation they have found themselves in. God does just that. Overnight, God reveals to Daniel exactly what he needs to know to be able to appease the king. When Daniel wakes up and realizes this, he doesn’t jump up and run to the king first. Instead, he takes time and praises God. This opportunity to praise God is exactly what we miss a lot of…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 7 Turn to God. Read Daniel 2:17-18. Daniel asked for extra time and the king granted that to him. So how did Daniel use that time? He went straight to his friends and told everybody that they needed to stop everything and spend time in prayer. They prayed to God. Daniel realized that he had a leader that was being unrealistic with expectations. What the leader was asking for could not be accomplished in any other way except through God. As Daniel realized that, he went straight to the only person who could solve the issue in the first place. Daniel knew that if God…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 6 Slow down. Read Daniel 2:14-16. According to researchers, when we make decisions quickly, we actually think much less about them. And while that would sound intuitive, because making a decision quickly means that we would have spent less time on it, what it actually means is that our decisions are made with less thought, and therefore less critical problem-solving and understanding of a situation. When we make a decision quickly, we are generally making more of an emotional decision and less of a thoughtful decision. Emotional decisions, while they may feel a certain way, are not always based on rational choice. As Daniel is…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 5 Blind obedience. Read Daniel 2:14. We’ve all met the people who just do whatever they’re told to do. They don’t ever seem to have an independent thought and they just always go along with the flow. When you pair someone like that up with a unrealistic leader, you end up with trouble. As we saw in the previous days, the king has made a completely unrealistic demand. The first response we saw was the group of people who whined about it. And yes, it was completely unrealistic, but their whining didn’t help anything. And in fact, it just made it worse, because it made…

Leading Through Challenging Circumstances, Day 4 The whiners. Read Daniel 2:10-13. If you’ve ever spent my time around other people, you will notice that often there’s a group of people who just are never happy. It doesn’t matter what the boss says, they will find something to complain about. These are the whiners. They’re the ones who can take even a good situation and make it sound truly awful and horrible. They like to encourage other people to join their way of thinking. As we look at responses to this king’s outrageously crazy demand, we first have to look at the whiners. Admittedly, what the king was asking for was…