You may or may not know that Saint Patrick was not an Irishman. In fact, he was a Brit (a Romano-Briton to be precise) & as a teenager he was captured by the Irish & enslaved. After six some odd years of slavery the young Patrick heard a voice telling him to walk to a port 200 miles away where he would discover a ship that would lead him home. Indeed, Patrick obeyed the instruction, discovered the ship, eventually returned to his freedom, his homeland, & his eventual calling into the ministry of the church. Years later - as legend has it - Patrick experienced a vision of a man carrying a number of letters & inscribed on the letter handed to him were the words, "the voice of the Irish." And while Patrick read the letter he imagined he heard a chorus of voices crying out to him, "We appeal to you, holy servant boy, to come and walk among us." So Patrick went to the land of his former captors & the rest so to speak is history - with a good bit of Irish legend thrown in.
There are voices that sing out to us & point us to a path of deeper living, more courageous faith, & indescribable freedom. But often we allow our circumstances to crush & choke out that voice in favor of the predictable, the routine, & the mundane.
St. Patrick listened to the clear freedom-soaked voice of the Spirit & changed the course of western civilization.
Now fast-forward a millennium and a half or so . . .
A couple of Sundays ago a young twenty year old kid sat with us during our homeless church - his face smeared with dirt & his eyes set adrift to the buzz of a drug-induced spin bouncing around inside his head. He muttered through semi-coherent sentences that he had lost his job, his shelter, & his friends - and was certainly well on his way to losing any semblance of sanity. He's the kind of homeless person other homeless people stay away from. In a state of confused frustration he asked me, "Why shouldn't I kill myself?"
"Because," I said, "That voice telling you to do harm to yourself is not a true voice - it is a false voice. I can only ask you to listen to my voice & tell you that you are loved."
"Can you pray for me?" He asked. And instinctively he held out both of his shaking hands to hold mine.
There are voices that attempt to seize & destroy us. While I acknowledge the unquestionable harm of mental disease I also acknowledge that there exist spiritual realities that seek to imprison, poison, & eviscerate any wholeness of living we may seek to live into. These are voices not to be ignored as so many of us unsuccessfully attempt to do rather they are voices we are called to actively battle against.
Now rewind a couple of centuries . . .
A well-respected businessman sat one Sunday in the pews of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. And an preacher named John Wesley delivered a stirring message that more than likely contained a version of a usual message he tended to preach: "Earn all you can, save all you can, and give all you can." The businessman had already successfully brought renewal & health by creating a drink to counter the drunkenness of his whiskey & gin-laden countrymen - what we know as Guinness beer; a drink that was low in alcohol content, high on good taste, packed with vitamins, & difficult to drink more than two. But now, stirred by the impassioned preaching of Wesley, Arthur Guinness set about making sure that his employees were the best paid in Ireland & provided benefits that no other company had. And then he founded the first Sunday schools in Ireland. He proceeded to spend some of his fortunes on helping the impoverished with schools & hospitals & drastically impacted how the elite of his day spent their money; not always on themselves but for the lives of others. The rest, sort to speak, is history.
Guinness listened to the right voice that led him to a deeper calling than merely obtaining wealth & fortune for his family - he heard the call of God through the voice of Wesley (founder of the Methodist movement) that made him an agent of transformation for the Kingdom of God in all of Ireland & beyond.
I guess the question to ask is obvious . . . What are the voices that we are listening to today? Are we being led to greater freedom in our faith. Or are we listening to voices that seek to stall us, hold us back, & even imprison us.
On this Saint Patrick's Day dare to offer yourself to a King who speaks only freedom, grace, & courage into your life. And then do what He's bidding you to do. The rest will become beautiful history.
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