Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is an international holiday. People all over the world will celebrate this day. As I was thinking about St. Patrick and this holiday I couldn't help but think about how the celebration has changed. St. Patrick was a missionary and the patron saint of Ireland. Originally, St. Patrick's day was only celebrated by the church in recognition of Patrick's missionary world to the people of Ireland who once held him captive. It was just a church recognized celebration. The Catholic Church named it an official feast day in the 1600's. St. Patrick's day has really moved away from a church celebration and more toward a secular celebration. What was once a feast or celebration in the church of the missionary work of a follower of Jesus has now become an international holiday where we all wear green in fear of getting pinched and look for leprechauns and pots of gold.

I am not saying that we should not celebrate St. Patrick's day and I am not trying to be a wet towel on your celebration. I am just thinking about how things can easily drift to being formed or conformed to the world rather than being transformed by Christ. We are called to be transformed and to live lives that are being transformed by Christ and not to be conformed to the world. We are called to follow Jesus and and take part in transforming the world around us.

Not the other way around.

Again, this is not anti-St. Patrick's day. Just something to think about as we celebrate St. Patrick's day. Are you, like it says in Romans, being transformed by the renewing of your mind or are you allowing the world around you to form you. God's hands or the world's hands. What is shaping you?

Have a happy and blessed St. Patrick's day.

Love today.

In Christ's love and mine,

Doug