Luck, rainbows, pots of gold, tiny leprechauns, beer fests, clovers, green, green, green and more green. Daggum! Stop pinching me! All of these things should easily lead an American human being to the same conclusion – “Oh! You’re talking about St. Patrick’s Day!” – and they would be correct.
A holiday now dedicated to the flashing of green paraphernalia, searching for tiny leprechauns, and getting wasted a local bars. Here in Charlotte we have week-long pub crawl festivals so you can spend days seeing just how intoxicated you can become in celebration of this patron saint who somehow has become etched into our brains as nothing more than a tiny dude with a thick Irish accent wearing a top hat, and inspiring us to seek all the luck in the world. Sad. If truth be told, it kind of makes me angry, so for the last several years I’ve made it a point to post information about the true Patrick every St. Patrick’s Day to hopefully educate others about the awesomeness of this amazing man… who wasn’t even Irish.
Coming from an Irish heritage (plus British, Scottish, German, Swiss, Native American, etc., etc., etc.), St. Patrick’s Day was considered a big deal among sone of my family members. Having a holiday dedicated to an important Irish figure was something to be extremely proud of. Except, when I would ask details about this “important Irish figure” to try to find out why he was so important, I never really got a whole lot of input. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this significant name wasn’t even Irish! That whole tiny, thick accent dude we see in the cartoons – not him at all. Turns out our famous Saint Patrick was actually a British noble born to a wealthy family, whose father was a deacon at their church.
Patrick, it seems, never really got into the whole Jesus thing. He was admittedly a non-believer, though he had to serve alongside his father. At the age of 16 he was captured by Irish pirates, taken away from his family, and forced into slavery in the strange and unfamiliar land of Ireland. For 6 years he was forced to work the land and tend the animals. Patrick was not treated well while enslaved, but during this time he learned about faith. He began to hear from God, became a believer, and never lost faith that God would get him out of the mess he was in.
One day, he had a dream and heard God tell him to get prepared because he would soon be freed. Not long after that, he had another dream and heard God tell him that his ship was ready and it was time to leave. He ran away from his masters at this time and found a ship that he was able to board and take it all the way back to Great Britain where he was soon reunited with his family. Having gained his faith and desiring to serve The Lord, he went to a type of seminary school and became an ordained minister. Not very long after this, again he had a dream, and knew from the details of it that God was telling him to go back to the land of his enslavers and share The Gospel with them. This is how Patrick became a legend.
The return to the land of so much turmoil in his life was not an easy one. In fact, per Patrick’s own accounts, he was beaten and even imprisoned at one point while sharing the good news with these people. It was hard, and his success was near minimal until, at last, a God-inspired idea came! According to legend, God told him to use the Shamrock (clover) as a teaching instrument because of it carried a lot of significance to the Irish people; he used it to explain how The Trinity is possible – a three individual entity in one God. This changed things, and the people began to accept him. It is said that a Great Revival took place in Ireland… all because a slave returned to the land of his horrors and shared the love of Christ.
This, my friends, is why Patrick is one of my heroes. There are not many among us who could fathom such a feat. Many of us have been hurt tremendously by other humans in the past. Could we still love them as Christ loves them after so much pain and suffering? If God told you to go back to that person(s) and share Jesus with them because He loves them, too, could you do it? I don’t know if I could, but I hope I would say, Yes. For that reason, I want to give my life to as much Jesus-sharing as I can.
Around the world in 11 months is pretty hardcore, and it’s the journey that I believe God has chosen for me to take. Would you consider supporting me in this endeavor?
