There's Always Time for Praising God

I did a little math today.  You know how people say you'll never use math again once you're out of school?  They're wrong.  I use it all the time, in lots of different ways.

The kind of problem I did today was a simple percentage calculation.

I wanted to know, out of the 49 verses in Daniel chapter 2, how many were dedicated to Daniel's prayer of thanksgiving once he had the same vision Nebuchadnezzar had seen, and on top of that the interpretation of it.

The prayer begins in verse 19 through verse 23, which makes five verses.  Therefore, out of the chapter's 49 verses, this prayer takes up slightly more than ten percent (a tithe, if you will) of the chapter.

While I'm certainly not here to offer a formula for how often and how much of our time we ought to budget for praising God, I do find it interesting that such a significant portion of an already lengthy chapter would be dedicated to heart-felt thanks.

Why?

Because if it were me, knowing that my ability to tell the king his dream and its interpretation directly influenced my immediate longevity and that of my colleagues, I would be tempted to say thank you later.  You know, after I had gone to the king to save my life.

But Daniel doesn't.  Death has already knocked at his door, but he's in no hurry.  He gives thorough praise to the God who reveals secrets before he goes out the door to accomplish his mission.

In my own tendency to rush to and through the to-do list without stopping for breath let alone thanks, I could take yet another lesson from Daniel, don't you think?