lessons from saint patrick.

on wednesday, march 17, commonly known as "saint patrick's day", i saw these two men walking down the street towards the white house on my way to work.

saint patrick's day is incredibly bizarre to me. for some people, they intentionally do not wear green or celebrate the day. for others, it is an excellent reason to go get drunk. still others care nothing about the day and it passes without much consequence.

i think i fall somewhere in the middle, we wore green and ate corn beef and cabbage with friends. but most of all, we listened to and retold the story about saint patrick. i taught it to my kids in sunday school, i listened to it again on wednesday night at perspectives. it's such a cool story, and i wanted to share it here, though i'm sure many of you know it already.

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patrick was born in england around 387 ad to an english deacon father. his grandfather was a priest. when patrick was 16 years old he was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery to an irish man where he herded cows and pigs for six years.

one day, when patrick was out in the fields, he had a vision that told him to get up, his ship was ready. so patrick got up, ran away from his master, and headed to the nearest shore (which was about 200 miles away). when he got there he found a ship waiting, he asked if he could have passage back to england, and they took him home.

a few years later, patrick had another vision:

"i saw a man coming, as it were from ireland. his name was victoricus, and he carried many letters, and he gave me one of them. i read the heading: 'the voice of the irish'. as i began the letter, i imagined in that moment that i heard the voice of those very people who were near the wood of foclut, which is beside the western sea—and they cried out, as with one voice: 'we appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us.' "

so patrick went. and he is credited for bringing christianity to ireland.

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so when i celebrate st. patrick's day, i celebrate missions. the kind of missions that saves and redeems and brings complete and absolute glory to God. what a crazy way to follow God--back to a land where you were held as a slave, to a land that was barbaric. talk about turning the other cheek! he was free! back in england with his family, with whom he had no contact for 6 years. and he left to go back to the very people who had taken him away to begin with.

this week our perspectives lesson was on the task remaining. we talked about what unreached people groups are left. people who have no opportunity to hear of the love of Jesus because nobody around them has ever heard The Story either. 40% of the world lives among these people. 40% of the world has never heard. and only 10% of the missionaries are going.

as we were discussing this, the speaker (who just so happened to be our associate minister this week) told a story about two young moravians and their desire to reach people who had no opportunity to hear. they were drawn to an island where slaves were kept to be traded and sold. the island was owned by an atheist slave trainer, who proudly stated that no christian would ever set foot on his island. so these two young men, grieved by these men and women who would never hear of the love of Christ, sold themselves into slavery to the slave trader and used the money to buy their passage onto the island. as they were leaving their friends and family, hugging them goodbye for the last time ever, shedding, i'm sure many tears and climbing onto the boat, one of the young men turned, and as he waved goodbye for one last time he yelled "worthy is the Lamb who was slain...".

worthy is the Lamb. worthy of all glory and power and honor. worthy of all the praise of all the people on the earth. of every people group, ethnicity and nationality.

what would it look like if i lived like the Lamb is worthy?