happy st patrick's day!

to continue with the positive attitude, i wanted to take today, and probably other historically significant days, to tell an uplifting story. as you can guess, today will be a short version of the story of st patrick.

born into a wealthy british family in the 5th century, he grew up a catholic. while a teenager, irish raiders kidnapped the rich patrick and shipped him off as a prisoner for about 6 years working as a shepherd and rekindling his christian faith. this led him to pursue the priesthood after his release from captivity and his eventual return to ireland as a missionary and here is where i think the best part of his story takes place. patrick employed not only traditional methods of outreach by traveling from church to church encouraging and teaching irish believers but also using locally known traditions of celebration and adopting them to the gospel story. for example, he would take the celtic spring celebratory bonfire and have an easter bonfire to introduce nonbelievers to the holiday. he also used the very powerful irish pagan symbol of the sun by placing it behind the christian cross creating what we know of as the celtic cross.

i know this is a very abbreviated version but also very cool because like paul, st patrick became all things to all people in order to better spread the gospel message and apply it to those he was ministering among. we could learn a thing or two from him...persecution, personal growth, and doing what it takes to work best within his situation. very cool stuff.

until the next post...