Today is St. Patrick's Day and I was going to post about waiting, but I thought in honor of St. Patrick I would share his story instead. Most of the information known about his life comes from Declaration, which is believed to have been written by him. When Saint Patrick was a teenager he was reportedly kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Gaelic Ireland. During this time he worked as a shepherd and it was here that he discovered God. He reported that God told him to flee to the coast where a ship would be waiting to take him home. Upon his return home he became a priest. The tradition states that Saint Patrick returned to Ireland to convert the pagan Irish to Christianity. He reportedly converted thousands while evangelizing in the northern half of Ireland. It is believed he died on March 17th and over a few centuries many legends blossomed about him until he became Ireland's foremost saint.
Most everyone knows that it is customary to wear shamrocks and/ or green clothing or accessories, but few people actually know why this custom began. Tradition says that St. Patrick is said to have used the shamrock, a three leaf plant, to explain the Holy Trinity. While the color green has long been associated with Ireland.
St. Patrick recognized the importance of a singular recognizable symbol as a mode of sharing faith and reminding people about what he had taught them. The people would no longer see a shamrock, but a visible representation of the Holy Trinity in the three leaves on the shamrock. This type of evangelism is simple, but effective and reminds me of a workshop I participated in last month. The Share Your Faith Workshop was put on by Pastor Ken Silva and Evangelism Explosion International. At the workshop participants were taught how to use their hand as a visual reminder of the message they were sharing. Your thumb is grace: heaven is a free gift; it is not earned or deserved. Your index finger is man: man is a sinner and he cannot save himself. Your great finger is God: God is merciful and doesn't want to punish us, but God is also just and must punish our sin. Your ring finger is Christ: Christ is both God and man; he died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins and purchase a place in Heaven for us. Your little finger is faith: saving faith is not just head knowledge or temporary faith, but is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for our eternal life.
Evangelism doesn't have to be complicated. St. Patrick was a slave and a shepherd when God found him. He didn't have any formal training in evangelism and yet he was able to use a shamrock to save thousands. Your faith doesn't even have to be expressed verbally to impact the lives of the people around you. The people in your life are looking to you. They look to you in crisis to see how you react, they look to you in times of power to see if you are just, and they look to you in times of prosperity to see if you are generous. Your life is a testimony of your relationship with God and people are reading this testimony every day.
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