this is my favorite holiday. here are my reasons:
1. i'm irish. right, i know, it's like being cherokee, isn't it. everyone's irish. but i really think i am. i always argue, "my grandmother's family name is o'neal! i have to be irish!" Nana says we're Irish, so Irish we are. one day soon i will return to the motherland (i've never been there before).
2. i like beer. I KNOW they don't celebrate this day in ireland by drinking beer like we do in america (i think they celebrate every day in ireland by drinking beer), but i think it's fun that beer is associated with this holiday. don't get carried away, i'm not getting drunk. let's be mature.
3. green is a really nice color.
4. i like rainbows and so do leprechauns.
5. i REALLY like celtic music and irish step dancing a-la micheal flatley and lord of the dance.
i could go on.
last year on st. patrick's day my pastor Mitch gave a sermon about the life of st. patrick and i learned why i really like him and his day. i was talking with lauren about this earlier today and i remembered why i identified so much with patrick's story. when i first heard this story last year i was preparing to move back to kenya after more than a year in the States. i remember feeling lonely and crazy. crazy because i had just quit a decent job to be a volunteer and raise support. and lonely because i was going alone. and i was fairly alone in my perspective (though not alone herding pigs for 6 years like st. patrick).
patrick was captured from his home in england and sold as a slave when he was 16 years old. he was a pig herding slave and totally and completely alone until age 24 when he heard a voice telling him to go to the sea where his ship to go home was waiting. while he was alone in the irish countryside with the pigs he prayed to God day and night, waking by sunrise to worship. when he heard the voice telling him to go home, he marched 200 miles to the sea and was miraculously protected by God. of this journey patrick said, "i came in God's strength and had nothing to fear." when he got there the ship's captain refused him, but as he turned around to go back to his hut and prayed, some sailors called to him offering him passage. there is much more to the story and my friend Lauren tells more here (must read!). when he finally returned to his home in england he could not stay there. he had to go back to ireland and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus where it had not been heard.
i remember feeling so comforted and encouraged when i heard this. i was feeling alone. and i was feeling like i could not stay at home. God was calling me back to Kenya and i had to get back there and share the love of Christ. i wanted to believe that i was going back in "God's strength and had nothing to fear."
st. patrick's faith in God had an impact on the people who met him. people knew he followed Christ. people even made fun of him for it. but people also came to faith in Jesus because of his faithfulness and intense belief.
i am encouraged again today.
and i'm really enjoying wearing my shamrock shirt from mcguire's irish pub in destin, florida.
today when you are wearing your green and pinching people and drinking guiness, remember the faithfulness of st. patrick and be encouraged, comforted, convicted, and challenged. God has a plan for His children. we can trust Him. may you and i say of our journeys, "I came in God's strength and had nothing to fear."
No comments:
Post a Comment