Last night was our senior banquet. Every year our congregation hosts a dinner for the graduating seniors. We do our best to provide the food they like, the entertainment they like, and have "parting words" that are geared towards the particular ones graduating. This year's thought came from the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. This passage is probably one of my favorite bible stories. It has relevance on so many levels.

Below, are a couple of points from this amazing story.

1) Its OK to work "in the world". Just don't give up your convictions of serving the one true God.
2) Appreciate what life God has created for you. Don't focus on mistakes, missed opportunities, bad misfortune, etc. Keep God the center focus, and it will all be OK.
3) God will always be with you, no matter what. People may turn their back on you: parents, friends, pastors, sisters, brothers, etc, but God will never turn His back on you.

For me, the most amazing phrase that these 3 teens give is when they are facing the roaring furnace, they look to the king and state, "....even if our God doesn't save we will not bow to you." I have a tendency to see God, when he "blesses" me with a bonus check I was expecting, hitting every green light on the way to work, getting the test results I was looking for from the doctor's exam, or even watching those rain clouds "float around" my son's game on Saturday.

This statement from these 3 Jewish teens really smacks me in the face. Will I still praise God, knowing that He may not "save" me from what ever it is I am struggling with? It could be a deadbeat job ("God, please bless me with another job that provides meaning to my life!"), or it could be living a life of complete mediocrity (I can do that! Why didn't they ask me to do that?!?! I could have done it so much better, if they had only asked me!!). We all have our own personal struggles, and I think that is where this statement of, "worship Him, even if He doesn't save us" applies to us all.

Or maybe look at it from this angle: There is something in each of our lives that we will die for. For me, its quite simply my family. If I knew that giving up my life, literally, would save the life of any member of my family, I would not hesitate to give it up. I think we all are like that. But there are also other things as well. For some its honor, pride for our country, a belief or cause for something so big that we can't see any other option. We all have this.

For Christians, we have to believe that our life on this planet has meaning and purpose for God's direction, and God's alone. Sure, He gives us responsibilities and causes to stand up for. He gives us the ability to choose what we want to get involved in, what we see as important. If we are not careful, we will get distracted and say that something, "must get done, or its the end of the world!"

So here is the question: Are you still going to worship God, even when life is throwing everything it has at you?