Daniel, this Jewish advisor in the court of a foreign king, has perfected self-control and diplomatic restraint. He is able to recognize the majesty of a pagan king in terms amenable to the king and acceptable to the standards of Daniel’s truth. His self-image is not on the table, the hair-trigger of religious and ethnic sensitivity has not been set, the safety lock is turned to ‘on’.
Judah’s son, in the halls of Jerusalem’s devastator, can assume the role of the obedient counselor. His day-to-day rhythm with its public and private tempos represents a formidable practice of self-denial and long-term outlook.
Yet there is a threshold he will not cross, a carefully considered ethical line that would appear blurry to those who had not invested the care to define it. For Daniel, it must have been sufficiently clear to warrant life-endangering action.
Action as prayer.
Under the Medo-Persian edict to pray to no other god, Daniel immediately ascends to the familiar open windows that face Jerusalem, devastated Jerusalem, occupied Jerusalem, Jerusalem the relic of a god who could not or would not save his sacred space from its sacriligeous marauders.
Daniel will not stop praying. He will not bow in public places, will not make a display of his piety. But neither will he abandon his open windows thrice daily, a ritual of memory and hope that transcends the unreflective demands of a Near Eastern tyrant.
One didn’t catch Daniel at this dangerous practice by following him about in his public rounds. It was necessary to surge into his home in the way his jealous competitors for political power had barreled into the king’s hall to force the edict’s signing and then to hold the king accountable to his own poor judgment.
Yet Daniel must have seen this coming, for such conspirators habitually whisper too loudly in royal hallways.
A friend once taught me that ‘it is not the strength of your passions that matter, but rather the integrity of your compromises’.
Integrity has seams. Daniel had found his. Now it was off to the lion’s den.
Canter Bridge 
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