Everyone loves to celebrate today. What’s the saying? “Everybody’s a little bit Irish on St. Patrick’s Day.” (Did The Simpsons actually coin that phrase?) While so many put on their shamrocks and green derby hats and dye their beer green they might be missing the best part of Patrick’s story (and I don’t think he drank green beer, anyway).
Four years ago we went to Dublin and I quickly discovered I didn’t know much about St. Patrick. And the few things I thought I knew turned out to be mostly legend. But as we discovered the truth of Patrick I also discovered the truth was better than any legend.
Patrick was kidnapped from his home in Britain by pirates when he was 16. He was carried off to Ireland and sold into slavery. For six years he worked as a captive doing lonely and dangerous work of working alone guarding his master’s sheep in the fields.
But it was during this work that Patrick’s previously nominal faith began to take on meaning for him. In his autobiographical book Confessio he writes that during this time he turned to prayer and drew closer to God. He says it was then that he experienced a true conversion and placed his faith in Jesus.
Hearing voices (again & again)
After six years of captivity, Patrick writes that he heard a voice telling him that his ship was ready. Patrick escaped his captor, made his way to a port, and convinced a ship’s captain to let him join them as they sailed back to Britain.
So Patrick makes his way home and filled with his renewed faith he continues to study Christianity. He eventually becomes a priest working in Britain … until one day he hears a voice, or has a vision of the people of Ireland, saying “We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.”
And so what does Patrick do? He goes back to Ireland! To the land of his captors. To the land that enslaved him and held him against his will for six years. He returns to the land of his enemies to spread the Good News of Jesus. Not only does he return to the land of his enemies but he goes to share salvation with them – the biggest gift they can be given.
Be like St. Patrick
It’s the best example St. Patrick gave us and what our focus should really be on St. Patrick’s Day (and every day).
He didn’t drive out snakes – not literally, anyway. But he did drive out evil.
It would have been pretty easy for Patrick to pull a “thanks, but no thanks,” wouldn’t it? Who would have blamed him? But instead, his prayer life and studies of God’s Word has brought him into a deep relationship with Jesus. He probably didn’t know what the end would look like, but he understands that if he obeyed God then God would be with him. His willingness to obey God’s leading on his life changed Ireland forever.
Think about what might happen if you were just as willing to love those who’ve harmed you. Think about what might happen if you listen to that voice calling you to return a place of hurt, and offer forgiveness and love . . .
