"DANIEL" was written because a nine-year-old boy from Macon, Georgia died in a tragic accident while his friend survived it. The two boys were playing in tunnels, which had been augured throughout stacks of cottonseed husks. When the boys failed to return home for supper, the mother of the boy who lived went to look for them, and was horrified to discover that one of the tunnels had collapsed on them. The anguish and suffering both families have felt from such a senseless death touches everyone who knows the story.
About two years after the boy's death, I was having dinner with his grandparents. The grandfather, a close family friend for many years, turned to me at one point in the conversation and asked me to help his family. His request affected me deeply. That night, I went home and prayed, asking God to show me what He wanted me to do, and promising Him that I would do it.
When I woke up the next morning, I felt the families around me—and intense emotional pain. I cried. I could almost see them in a hole that was getting deeper, and I could see their emotions eating them alive, like lions ripping flesh from prey. It was in that moment I thought of The Bible story about Daniel and the Lions. I knew that Daniel had survived the lions, but my questions became, "What were the 'emotional' lions that Daniel faced in the pit?" and "Why was Daniel made to suffer?"
Out of these questions, "DANIEL" was born. After the first reading, it was evident that DANIEL wields a powerful message, a message for everyone. We, like Daniel, face emotions every day; that these emotions are like lions, and that it is up to us to decide whether we will tame the lions or let them eat us alive. And if we choose faith, hope, and love, we can survive anything.
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