#12 Holy Wit – Sidecar Reflections I Am With You: Courage Rooted in God’s Nearness – Daniel 6 The Window That Stayed Open The law had been signed before Daniel ever bent his knees. A group of officials — men who resented his integrity and feared his influence — persuaded King Darius to issue a decree. For thirty days, no one in the empire could pray to any god or man except the king. It was presented as loyalty. It was crafted as flattery. It was, in truth, a trap. The punishment was not symbolic. Anyone who violated the decree would be thrown into a den of lions. Daniel knew. The text tells us plainly: “When Daniel knew that the writing was signed…” He was not unaware. He was not careless. He understood exactly what obedience would cost. He went home. He went upstairs. He opened his window toward Jerusalem — the city of promise, though he lived in exile — and he knelt. He prayed. He gave thanks. As he had always done. The officials were watching. That was the point. They caught him praying. They reported him. The king, bound by his own irreversible law, ordered Daniel to be cast into the den. A stone was rolled across the opening and sealed with the king’s signet. That night the king could not sleep. Daniel could. The lions were real. The danger was real. The stone was real. But so was God. That’s the story. And most of us remember the lions. But Daniel 6 is really about the window. The decree did not create Daniel’s faithfulness; it revealed it. He did not suddenly become courageous when threatened. He simply refused to alter a long-established pattern of devotion. He did not organize resistance. He did not denounce the king. He did not pray louder. He just kept praying. There is something almost unremarkable about that — and that is precisely the point. Courage in this chapter is not spectacle. It is consistency. We tend to imagine courage as a surge of boldness in a dramatic moment. Daniel shows us that courage is often the continuation of quiet obedience under new pressure. The next morning, the king rushed to the den and cried out in anguish. Daniel answered calmly: “My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths.” Notice the emphasis. Not “I stood firm.” Not “My discipline saved me.” Not even “My faith was strong.” “My God…” The miracle is not about Daniel’s resolve. It is about God’s presence. This is where the “I Am With You” thread runs straight through the story. Daniel’s courage was not rooted in confidence that he would survive. It was rooted in confidence that God was near — in the upper room and in the den. The same God who heard him through an open window met him beneath a sealed stone. Most of us will never face literal lions. But we will face decrees of a quieter kind — moments when faithfulness costs comfort, reputation, or advancement. The temptation will not be to roar back. It will be to close the window. Daniel leaves it open. Not to prove himself righteous. Not to make a statement. But because that is who he has been all along. And when the stone is rolled into place — whether in Babylon or in our own smaller trials — the promise is the same: The God who was with us in prayer will be with us in the dark. #HolyWitSidecar #GordonMcGinnis #IAmWithYou #Daniel6