Responding to Failure (Acts 13:13)

Acts 13:13

Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem,

                How do you deal with it when you fail as a Christian? You know, of course, that we all fail, and sometimes royally. I can look back over life experiences as a believer, even as a pastor, and see things that I messed up completely. How should we deal with it?

                When Paul and his group set out on the missionary journey of Acts 13, they brought along John Mark. Mark, the young relative of Barnabas, failed. He flaked out and left the mission team without his support. We don’t know why. Did he conflict with somebody? Did he get homesick? Did he just wimp out? All we know is that he left.

                Recognize that this decision of Mark’s was a big deal. It had consequences that rippled through the church. Paul and Barnabas could no longer work together in future ministry when they disagreed over how to respond to Mark. What John Mark did caused big problems. It was the kind of gaff that would make any of us think that our ministry lives or at least our usefulness was at an end.

                But if we read to the end of the story, all the way toward the end of Paul’s life, we find out that Paul thought Mark was a very important friend and fellow minister. Writing to timothy, Paul said, “Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11).

                I have often heard these snippets of Marks’ life preached with a strong focus on forgiveness and reconciliation. Usually we emphasize Paul’s forgiving spirit. But I think we can also learn from Mark. I do not think there is any doubt that Mark knew he messed up. Could Mark have thought himself a failure in ministry? Finally he gets a chance to do some real mission work, and what happens? He blows it, that is what happens. Could Mark have ever seen himself as possibly useful again? Apparently so, because he became such an important tool in the hand of God that he penned one of the four gospels.

                There are failures that men can commit that will disqualify them from pastoral ministry. I do not at all ignore that truth. However, there are also failures that we can experience that scar us, but which do not end our usefulness to God. Even those men disqualified from pastoral ministry have the ability to serve the Lord well in the future in other capacities if they repent. The point here is that we need to recognize that no past failure renders us useless for the Kingdom of God. No bad experience, no botched mission trip, no dropped ball, no bad committee chairmanship, no rough job experience is enough to make us no longer part of God’s plan. God has the ability to use any of us, even those of us who have failed miserably at different times, to accomplish his will for his glory and our joy.