My "aha!" moment started with a hymn - "Be Thou My Vision." I'd heard it before, but today it struck me as my Pandora station shuffled through songs. So I searched through the various arrangements on YouTube and liked this one best: [be Thou my vision - chelsea moon] .
Then the history nerd in me came out, and I searched the song's original meaning. It just seemed like a great prayer - to not care about riches, human praise, physical needs, knowledge, worldly success or anything but God's opinion, God's riches, God's wisdom - something I connect with in my heart but end up straddling the line between every day. Between sold-out devotion to God and yet attraction to the world's treasures. Between desiring to please only Him yet still seeking affirmation from others. You know. Being human.
Then I stumbled upon story after story of the guy behind the song. Curious? St. Patrick. Thee St. Patrick. Thee original dude who's name people get dressed up in green for, drink green beer for, throw cabbages and leftover Marti Grai beads at parades for if you're in Biloxi, Mississippi five spring breaks ago. No joke here's proof:
But the original St. Patrick was far from this. Turns out he was a missionary, and this was a hymn written about the time he put his life on the line defying the king of Ireland. It was the night before Easter, and King Logaire had ordered no candles could be lit before he lit a fire on Slane Hill to signify the start of a pagan spring festival. St. Patrick lit candles anyway, and the king let him live.
Turns out his royal highness was so impressed by Patrick's courage and devotion that he let the missionary continue his work instead of putting him to death. A few centuries later, a monk wrote the hymn to honor Patrick's actions/faith that night.
Pretty sweet eh? Lighting a few candles doesn't seem like a huge, gigantic, superhero, overly-spiritual kind of action, but the fact that his life was on the line means a whole different thing. Pretty awesome. And God gets the glory when the king recognizes Patrick's devotion, concludes he must be following Someone pretty important, yields and spares his life.
Reminds me of Esther's story in the Bible. Reminds me God does His best work in the impossibles. And motivates me to pray "Lord be my vision." Not my success. Not my gain. Not my acceptance. Not my perfect, easy, comfortable life or that things work my way, but God and God's glory alone.
