Like Gas From a Leaky Pipe

A Reflection On the Book of Daniel 10-12

A heart that's full up like a landfill

A job that slowly kills you

Bruises that won't heal

You look so tired, unhappy

Bring down the government

They don't, they don't speak for us

I'll take a quiet life

A handshake of carbon monoxide

No alarms and no surprises

Silent

-Radiohead “No Surprises”

In 2013 my wife and I went on vacation to the mountains a few hours south of Shanghai. We rented a room at a beautiful farmhouse turned hotel. It had a rustic décor: wicker chairs and stone walls, old tables and a great big fireplace that we could gather around at night to laugh, drink wine, and warm ourselves by the fire.

The room we were staying in was on the second floor, just above the fireplace. The chimney pipe ran through our room and out up to the roof. As we nestled into bed for the evening after a fun filled day, we hardly noticed the crack in the pipe and the fumes that were being pumped into our room.

As we lay in bed, we both started to feel hazy and out of it. Though something was clearly wrong, we were too drowsy and intoxicated by the gas to clearly articulate it. I turned to my wife, before falling asleep, in a haze and not knowing what I was saying, and asked “What if we fall asleep and never wake up?”

Imagine an alternate ending to this story. They find us dead the next morning, an unfortunate mishap for a pair of foreign tourists. The story makes the expat newspapers back in Shanghai, years later it becomes somewhat of an urban legend. All the things that happened from then until now do not. Our little family never forms, we’re not here today writing this.

But we were saved, by the tiniest of mistakes. I had left one of the windows cracked that afternoon and forgot to close it. At the same time gas was being pumped into our room, the open window was clearing it out.

When we woke in the morning, neither of us could hardly stand up. We were pale and woozy, vomiting repeatedly and trying to get our heads right. On that day I learned a new vocab word – Yi Yang Hua Tan Zhong Du (一氧化碳中毒) – the Mandarin term for carbon monoxide poisoning. It took us days to recover, weeks to feel normal again.

Almost murdered by a leaky pipe!

***

To not be murdered by a leaky pipe is the spiritual challenge of our age. There are different spirits that rule over places and eras: a spirit of oppression, a spirit of violence, a spirit of poverty. Our struggle is against the almighty spirit of carbon monoxide. It is silent, deadly, and nearly imperceptible. A quote from comedian Bill Burr sums it up concisely:

‘’Do you ever notice when the government fucks up, all of a sudden McDonald’s has a new sandwich…You’re sitting there screaming at your T.V., ‘How can they pardon all these CEO’s! Ooh McRib!’’

Test this hypothesis – every time you take a step towards greater spiritual formation, HBO will offer you a free 30-day subscription. When you resolve in your soul to pray, or fast, or be silent for a time, your mind is filled with anxiety, tweets, Lions draft talk, and the next big project at work. How can we connect to the deeper currents of life, the larger narrative that God is writing, when we’re breathing from the leaky pipe?

***

Rather than connecting to a larger narrative, a story that’s been going on long before we were born and will be going on long after we’re gone, we insist on creating our own smaller stories. We imagine our tribe as the good guys, and we are the protagonists in this alluring drama.

In some sense, we have succeeded in creating our smaller stories. We are kingdom builders and conquerors. Few humans in all of history have ever been as powerful as us. Just the other night I watched Chris Martin, lead singer of the band Coldplay, perform a concert with a gospel choir, while eating a banana imported from Ecuador, and then on a whim decided to video call my friend halfway around the world in Hong Kong using my magic rock! (an iPhone 6)

But our success and comfort are every bit as dangerous as the gas from a leaky pipe. Odorless, invisible, and silent, we barely notice our souls being deadened. The terminal comfort is slowing poisoning us. Like guzzling frat boys at a party, we’ve binged on the good life and it’s getting hard to hold it down.

Which is why it’s really hard for us to relate to a character like Daniel. A Jewish exile, stripped of his name, his homeland, his traditions. He fights to maintain his identity in a foreign land, but inevitably the different language, different culture, different customs end up shaping his life and thinking. Daniel is a man who had to find his way in a hostile environment in which he was the perennial outsider. He served multiple masters, a new one each time the empire is overthrown. Each time a new king sits on the throne he must wonder ‘Is this the end for me? Will this emperor do away with me as he cleans house from the last administration?’

Daniel has no faith in government, he has no faith in the system. He is so extreme, that he won’t even put faith in the laws of nature. He is thrown into a pit of ravenous Lions and thinks there’s a possibility they won’t eat him. There is nothing comfortable about this man’s existence! He clings to God’s providence as if his life literally depended on it.

So, when God sends a messenger to him in chapter 10 and calls him ‘highly esteemed’ twice, he is speaking to his lack of attachment to the smaller stories unfolding around him – the high position in the government, the power, the allure of empire, his own personal achievements. Daniel had a passion for the larger story and an awareness that he was a piece of it, but not the protagonist. He did not feel the pressure to make his own mark of significance in the world, but rather found his significance in the larger narrative. God honored this wisdom by showing him how the story would end, nearly 400 years after his passing.

***

While it’s difficult to relate to Daniel, a man who lost it all and therefore had to find his attachments elsewhere, Chapter 11 of the book should feel highly familiar to us. This chapter tells of the comings and goings of kings and empires from the time of the Medes to the time of the Romans. It reads much like the evening news – the backstabbing and maneuvering of that era’s version of politicians. The conquering of lands, the unceasing wars and violence, the endless scheming to be king of the hill.

Of the numerous Kings, queens, royalty, and generals listed in chapter eleven, perhaps the most familiar to our ears is the king of Greece, Alexander the Great. It says in verse 2:

11:2 Now then, I tell you the truth: Three more kings will arise in Persia, and then a fourth, who will be far richer than all the others. When he has gained power by his wealth, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece. 3 Then a mighty king will arise, who will rule with great power and do as he pleases. 4 After he has arisen, his empire will be broken up and parceled out toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, nor will it have the power he exercised, because his empire will be uprooted and given to others.

Alexander’s life and legacy are a powerful example of what it looks like to achieve wild success in writing your smaller story. According to all-knowing Wikipedia.com:

“He was born in Pella in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of 20. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Western Asia and Northeastern Africa, and by the age of thirty, he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of history's most successful military commanders.”

Alexander loved to murder and conquer, and he was so talented at it. He was the Mark Zuckerberg of military tactics, the Lebron James of palace intrigue. By the age of 30 this dude’s whole attitude was like the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s: Insufferable, bloated on his own ego, inventing slights and insults just to justify crushing weaker people.

You may have heard this quote about him, “When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer.” This line, probably one of the most well-known statements about Alexander, was never said by him but is actually a made-up quote from the character Hans Gruber in the 1988 film Die Hard.

Alexander died on June 11, 323 BC, at the age of 32. Al was having a few drinks with his pals. Frat boy style, he downed a large bowl of unmixed wine and shortly afterwards experienced severe abdominal pain and a fever. He never recovered from this experience and was dead 11 days later. The undefeated world conquering warrior done in by a pint of skunky liquor.

Alexander was in Nebuchadnezzar’s palace in Babylon when he died. You may remember that’s the place the book of Daniel began in, and where Daniel spent most of his career.

***

Lest we become too judgy hearing the story of Alexander, we would do well to remember that his inclinations towards kingdom building on this earth run through our veins as well. We are engaged in the conquering of our own personal empires and actively trying to increase our egos. Our lives mostly revolve around the false identities we derive from work, wealth, success, health, and affiliations.

As an example, a friend of mine saw her husband pass away several years ago. While still alive, her husband was a skilled and highly successful doctor. He poured his heart and soul into his achievements and image as a doctor. The man let it be known that career came first, followed by his children, and then in a distant third, his wife. As the wife now plans to move to a different house, she is faced with what to do with all of his stuff. He had his awards and diplomas printed extra-large and put into beautiful frames. Just think of the time, money, and determined effort put into earning those degrees and certificates. But now, you could put them into the free bin at a garage sale and nobody would want them.

Likewise, Alexander’s empire fell apart almost immediately after his death. The remainder of Daniel chapter 11 recounts how the cycle of scheming and bloodshed resumed almost immediately, and continued straight on to the time of Jesus.

It is precisely at that time of Jesus that the vision concludes. God foretells the end of this larger story to Daniel when he says:

Chapter 12: 1-4:

“There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”

The success and accomplishments we enjoy in life are like the leaky pipe, lulling us to sleep, making us believe in their permanence. Yet we also live with the tension of an inescapable death.

So, take a big deep breath of carbon monoxide. Chase all this world has to offer and get it while you can. Or connect and become a part of the deeper story that is unfolding around us.

It’s so difficult for us to understand Daniel’s mentality and wisdom because of our environment and cultural blind spots. Yet his writings have so much to say to us.

***

Daniel did not enjoy the security and comfort that we do. He attached himself to the hope that God was working out a larger story. The book of Daniel can be summarized as such: on the surface of life there are the daily power struggles and efforts to find lasting significance apart from the author of life. This effort to make our own meaning happens on an international, national, communal, familial and individual scale. Whether you are conquering all of the Persian empire or feeling good about yourself because you beat out Bill in accounting for that promotion, we’re all guilty of it. But, in the times when we do enjoy success, it quickly turns to dust in our hands.

Jesus commented on this when he said:

Mark 8:35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

We give up the role of superstar and screen writer. In return we get to be part of a project that’s been going on since the beginning of time, and will keep going long after we’re gone.

God says that Daniel dedicated himself to increasing his wisdom. The wisdom of Daniel is to connect with the deeper currents underneath the non-stop rat race of modern life. To be rooted to something which cannot be taken away if you lose your job, or the economy crashes, or a pandemic hits, or your health declines. Something that transcends death itself.

ReligionDrew FralickMarch 21, 2021Comment