Vision Navigator

I heard a great quote yesterday from a friend and mentor:

Man’s disappointment is God’s appointment.

With today being St. Patrick’s Day, it struck me that this quote was borne out in the life of St. Patrick himself.

For although St. Patrick’s name has become synonymous with all things Irish, he was not a native Irishman.  In fact, he was born in Wales, where he grew up on a farm.  At the age of sixteen, he was captured by raiders, who took him back to Ireland as a slave.  For six years he lived there in relative solitude - separated from family and friends, living the rather lonely life of a shepherd.

During this time, however, he began to pray, and hear from God.  Eventually he heard a voice that told him he would soon be going home.  Later he heard that a ship was being made ready for him.  This prompted him to flee his master and travel to a port 200 miles away, where he found eventual passage back to his home.

A few years after his return, Patrick had a vision.  In it, a man coming from Ireland brought him a letter representing the “Voice of the Irish.”  Patrick also imagined that he heard the voices of Irish natives calling out to him to come and walk among them.  Patrick saw this vision as a call from God to return to Ireland to serve as a missionary.

Note the significance here?  God was calling Patrick to leave the safety and comfort of home to return to the land of his enslavement.  And not only return there, but adopt it, and embrace it as part of his own calling and identity.

And Patrick did return - allowing this vision from God to transform his own view of Ireland - from a place of slavery and personal disappointment, to a place of calling and divine appointment.

During his ministry in Ireland, Patrick took on a second name, becoming known as Patricius Daorbae.  This second name, Daorbae, was a Gaelic word, meaning “he was enslaved.”

Rather than denying or becoming bitter about his bad luck then, Patrick embraced it as part of God’s unique vision for him.  His work as a missionary led to his eventual recognition a few centuries later as the Patron Saint of Ireland.  Ironic isn’t it, how God could transform a seemingly insignificant foreign slave into a revered Saint and native son?

What’s your story?  How do you view the disappointments of your past?  Do your own failures or weaknesses disqualify, or uniquely qualify you to serve God?