If we just consider the barrage of (bad) news broadcast daily, we could easily come to the conclusion that history is one catastrophe after another, war after war, disaster after disaster. Injustice leveled upon injustice, people treated as property, robbed of their Creator given rights to live free etc. etc.
Viewed like this, history appears to be nothing more than the story of human pain. But history can also be the narrative of grace, where someone, however unlikely does something for someone else beyond what might be justified, expected, or required.
Many people, especially those of Irish descent just celebrated such a person, Patrick of Ireland. What was special about him, what made him different?
He was born around A.D. 390 to a middle-class Christian family in Roman Britain. When he was a teenager, marauding Irish raiders attacked his home, captured him and took him to Ireland where he was sold to a landowner as a slave. During his long and lonely existence, he prayed constantly and then felt himself surrounded by the love of God. In this harsh setting, Patrick’s life was transformed through faith in Jesus Christ. He eventually escaped, returned to Britain and became a priest and later a bishop. Then thirty years after Patrick fled Ireland, he had the strange sense that God was calling him to return to Ireland as a missionary.
The Irish of the fifth century were known throughout Europe as unusually violent, barbaric people, who frequently practiced human sacrifice. By returning to Ireland, Patrick understood that he might be murdered, betrayed, or again enslaved. But because a greater love had captured his heart, he put himself in the hands of God Almighty.
Throughout his life, his genuine love for the Irish was evident, even though he could have felt justified to hate them with vengeance for what they had done to him. Patrick devoted 30 years of his life to these “warrior children” so that they might “seize the everlasting kingdom of God” with all the energy and intensity they had previously devoted to doing wrong to each other.
He was concerned for their spiritual well-being but he also had their physical welfare and the injustices of the day in mind. Patrick spoke out strongly against slavery and soon after his death the Irish slave trade came to a halt and other forms of violence such as murder and tribal warfare decreased. His followers lived faithful, courageous and generous lives, showing that the weapons of war are not the preferred instrument for structuring a society. Patrick’s missionary work had succeeded beyond his dreams. Countless people gave their lives to Christ and as a result Irish society was transformed.
Patrick’s life shows that God can dramatically transform an entire bloodthirsty and warlike culture such as fifth-century Ireland through the obedience and the sacrifice of a single person. History was altered by the sacrificial, loving, and gift-giving of one person, acting in a time of crisis.
Our time desperately needs people like Patrick! Will you and I become people like that, who go beyond angrily pointing out what is wrong with this world to winsomely, lovingly, and firmly work for a better future?
Patrick’s life and legacy provide hope that today’s ills and injustices can be transformed. It requires followers of Jesus everywhere to love God and neighbor with the same abandon and dedication.
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