‘Hold on,’ Paul says. ‘John Mark flipped out and failed us last time. He’s not coming again.
‘Yes he is,’ said Barnabas, son of Comfort.
‘No way,’ said Paul. ‘There’s work to do. We can’t have this guy tag along with us. He just doesn’t have what it takes.’
‘I’m taking John Mark,’ said Barnabas.
‘Fine,’ said Paul. ‘Go your way. I’ll take Silas and we’ll go in a different direction.’
And they parted company.
Years later, we see that Barnabas’ work was successful with John Mark, for here in Colossians Paul salutes him.
So too, you who feel like you ‘missed the mark’, that God opened a door for you to do something, but you failed — take heart. I don’t care how badly you messed up, He’s not through with you.
You think you're a failure? Consider this man. He had less than three years of formal education and failed in business in ‘31. He was defeated for State Legislature in ‘32, and failed again in business in ‘34. Finally elected to the State Legislature in ‘35, he ran for Speaker and lost in a landslide. He was defeated again for Elector in ‘40, and for Congress in ‘43. Elected in ‘46, he was tossed out of office two years later, defeated in a reelection attempt in ‘48. Failing in business once again, he ran for Senate, but was defeated in ‘55. He ran for Vice President in ‘56, was crushed, and was defeated for Senate another time in ‘58. And then in ‘60, 1860, Abraham Lincoln won — and went on to become perhaps the greatest political leader in American history.
Could it be that the wit, wisdom, and understanding of human nature which he exhibited so powerfully came as a result of the setbacks, failures, and defeats Lincoln had experienced previously?
Don’t despair, precious people. John Mark blew it badly, but came through ultimately. So can you.
joncourson.com
Very good post on Abraham Lincoln. Many great man and woman have this kind of a bio. We learn from failure. I was delighted when my A student daughter failed her 8th grade math course because she had missed 7 months being in Russia and studying a different kind of math. She made it up in summer school, got her A, and marched on -- but armed with the knowledge that failure is just a stepping stone to success. She has not been afraid of failure since, and that has allowed her to take many risks she would not have taken. As for God's role in it all -- I think He does allow us to fail for the same reason that I was delighted that my daughter fail: to risk-proof us. We will never be able to fail so badly that He cannot pull us up out of the muck!
ReplyDelete