Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Today many people around the world, whether Irish or not, are celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day. We all love to wear green, speak with a fake accent and eat chocolate coins in celebration of this day. It has come to my attention that many of us really have no idea what we are celebrating! So, I thought I would give a little information on Saint Patrick and the origin of this holiday.


First of all, Patrick was born around 385 A.D., he was not Irish and his name was not Patrick. He was actually born into a wealthy Christian family on the English Isle. Scholars cannot pinpoint the location of the village he was born in beyond it being somewhere in England. Although he was born into a Christian family, he had little interest in Christianity during his youth. When he was about 16 years old, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland where he was forced to work for around six years as a captive herder. During this hard time in his life, he turned to God for solace. He spent most of his time calling out to God in prayer.

During one of these times of prayer he heard a voice he believed to be God telling him it was time to leave Ireland. He fled to the Irish coast, a walk of nearly 200 miles, and escaped home to Britain on a ship. After a hard journey in which he was taken captive a second time for two months, he found his way home and was reunited with his family.

From this point forward, Patrick had a burning desire for the people of Ireland to hear the gospel. It is said that an angel told him in a dream that he was to return to Ireland as a missionary. After almost 15 years of study and training, he left for Ireland to go and spread the good news of the gospel to the largely pagan populations of the country. This was what he devoted his life to for the next 40 years.

As for some of the more common symbols of Ireland, it is believed that they have their origins at the hands of Saint Patrick. It is said that he used the shamrock as a symbol to explain the holy trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is also believed that he superimposed the cross onto the sun, an important symbol to pagans. Some say he did this simply to show that the cross of Christ was superior to the sun that they worshipped. Others say this was done to help the pagans see Jesus Christ as the one who gives them life rather than the sun.  This is likely where the origin of the Celtic cross comes from.

So why do we celebrate the life of Saint Patrick on March 17^th every year? It is legend that Saint Patrick died on March 17, 460 A.D. so it is fitting that his life is celebrated on this day. To many, St. Patrick’s Day is simply an excuse to party and/or show their Irish pride. To me, it is a celebration of the spreading of the love of Christ to an entire nation and a hope for today that the good news of Jesus Christ can and will be both shared and accepted!

If interested, check out St. Patrick's own testimony, "Confessio"

Also, for children (and adults), Veggie Tales shares this story in a fun way:

Finally, a real Irish song, performed by a real Irish band:

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all! Stay safe!


With love always,


Mike

Building Towers (a lesson on pride)

My young son and I love to build together. We have spent many afternoons using our bountiful supply of preschool sized lego to build houses, bridges, towers, spaceships…you name it, we’ve built it. The past few days, my son has become adamant that it must be possible for us to build a tower that goes from the floor all the way to the ceiling. The first day we attempted this, we went with the theory of building it as quickly as possible. We attempted to make one large single cube block tower to see how high we could get. I don’t think we ever made it past a few feet tall with that tower and that was with me holding on to it the entire time. Without a strong foundation and some supports to brace the blocks, the tower was just not strong enough.

On day two I managed to convince my junior architect that we needed to build some supports around the single cubes to help keep them standing straight.  We did much better with this tower. We managed to get up to about five feet tall before I had to hold onto the tower at all times so that it would not fall. Eventually, we started running low on blocks so we abandoned the outer supports and went for the single cube ceiling touch. No matter how hard we tried, we could not get it to stay standing up. It crashed to the ground and we were done for the day.

Today, I decided that we were going to continue as far as we could with the outer supports and just see how close we could get to the ceiling...

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We managed to build a tower that not only stood on its own, it also was only a few more blocks away from touching ceiling.  If you take a look at that picture, my son was so proud of what we had accomplished. So was I! “Man, this is the coolest tower we have ever built! We are lego tower building geniuses! I’m so proud!” Proud…pride…pride comes before the fall…

“First pride, then the crash – the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.” (Proverbs 16:18 MSG)

If I’m being honest, the entire three days we were working on these towers I kept thinking about the tower of Babel.  Here was a group of people united in goal. “They said, ‘Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world’.” (Genesis 11:4 NLT)  We do not know how far the people of Babel got on their tower but we do know that God took notice of what they were building.  It was not the tower that was being built that concerned Him, it was the pride that they were building within themselves. Remember, they were building for themselves. To humble them, God came and gave different languages to confuse and scatter them.

You may be wondering what the big deal about pride is. Why does God oppose pride so much? Let’s define the word to start:

Pride - A feeling or deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of those with whom one is closely associated, or from qualities or possessions that are widely admired. (Oxford Dictionary, US English version)

God’s issue with pride is that it takes our eyes off of Him. We can feel something towards God for His accomplishments and His qualities - this is called “fear of the Lord”. That feeling towards God is what leads us to giving Him glory, honor and praise. That feeling is what causes us to humble ourselves before Him. When this feeling is not directed towards God and is instead turned back upon us it becomes pride. This is when we place ourselves in a place of honor above God.

Isaiah spoke of this pride: “For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars, I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’" (Isaiah 14:13-14 NLT)  

 Ezekiel also wrote on this pride: “Your heart was filled with pride because of all your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth and exposed you to the curious gaze of kings.” (Ezekiel 28:17 NLT)

These verses from the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel were words given to them by the Lord to serve as messages to the kings of Babylon and Tyre. God was referencing the fall from heaven of a “mighty guardian” or “shining star”.  God wanted them to see that as pride can be the downfall of a heavenly being, so can it be the downfall of a mere man, no matter how wealthy or powerful they may seem to be.

I am made aware that towers continue to be a symbol of pride. Every time I drive into Toronto I find myself looking for the CN Tower. It is a symbol of pride to the city of Toronto. Even by simply searching Toronto on Google in images you will flood your screen with pictures of the famous tower. If you search another famous city, New York, in Google images you will again find yourself barraged with images of skylines filled with the many famous towers, buildings and statues of the city. It should not serve as a surprise that the terrorists of 9/11 used the famous towers of the New York skyline to strike a blow on the pride of the United States. It also does not surprise me that new towers are being built on the same ground as the first ones to serve as a symbol of the rebuilding of the pride of the nation.

The fame of buildings does not stop in North America. Cities such as Dubai, Mecca, and Taipei hold their towers in high regards as the pride of their cities. Browsing the websites of these cities' towers, you will find words such as “world-class”, “magnificent” and “masterpiece” to describe them. Not every building attempted has been so successful. Cities such as Pyongyang, Bangkok, Krakow, and Caracas are home to buildings that have been abandoned in an unfinished state. These buildings serve as eyesores and embarrassments to these cities. No wonder buildings were so often used in parables and metaphors to send us a message.

“Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is useless”

(Psalms 127:1 NLT)

“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh at you!”

(Luke 14:28-29 NLT)

“For every house has a builder, but God is the one who made everything.”

(Hebrews 3:4 NLT)

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and obeys me is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse, because it is built on rock. But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will fall with a mighty crash.”

(Matthew 7:24-27 NLT)

                     

My son and I had fun building the tower today but right after we took a picture of it we took it apart before it could fall down. The towers we build do not signify how intelligent, powerful, wealthy or cool we may be.   But the damage done when the towers fall will show how high our pride has taken us.

“First pride, then the crash – the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.” (Proverbs 16:18 MSG)

"Don't be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn your back on evil"

(Proverbs 3:7 NLT)

With love always,

Mike