Mark was a quitter. He committed to a mission trip with Paul and Barnabas, but he bailed when the going got tough. “Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John (Mark) left them and returned to Jerusalem, but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia” (Acts 13:13-14a). While the mission went forward, Mark pulled a Jonah and sailed in the opposite direction.
Mark’s abandonment was a big deal to Paul. Later on, another opportunity arose for a second mission trip, “Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed…” (Acts 15:37-40). Paul was willing to forgive, but trust and forgiveness are two separate issues. Paul couldn’t trust a guy who had proven himself to be a quitter.
Mark was a quitter, but he was the kind of quitter who didn’t give up. That is to say, Mark fell, but he eventually got back up. His courage faltered, but he found it again. He did quit, but he also restarted.
Mark is a truly sympathetic figure in this regard. Who among us hasn’t fallen short at some point in our lives? Moreover, most of us know the particular shame of falling short of a standard we set for ourselves. No one put a gun to Mark’s head and compelled him to go on that first mission trip. He volunteered to do it. He thought he could do it. Then he fell short of the expectation he had for himself.
Falling short of what we expect from ourselves makes us hang our heads in shame. It can be crushing. Sadness can set in, sometimes even severe depression. The failure might be breaking a diet and gaining weight, when we committed to ourselves that we would lose weight. The failure might be resorting to a bad habit that we promised ourselves we would never again resume (drinking, smoking, gambling, sexual sins, excessive gaming, etc). Or, like Mark, the failure might be not doing something that we had hoped to be able to do.
Mark gives us a beautiful example of a Christian who failed but who resumed trying. To have the great Apostle Paul issue a vote of no confidence and still get on that boat with Barnabas and try again was a remarkable display of grit. There is a lesson in it. Even if the most respected people in our lives don’t think we can do what we think God is calling us to do, do it anyway. The one thing we cannot do is finally quit, even if our problem has been our own tendency to quit.
Discipline is a muscle that must be built. Muscles grow by training, through small decisions building up over time. Maybe you’ve tried going to the gym before, but you always end up quitting after a few weeks, or perhaps after a few days. One of the great revelations about the joy of discipline is that you don’t have to arrive at an end goal to experience discipline’s joy. As soon as we experience some progress, the joy of discipline begins to build. If a middle-aged man desires to lose 50 pounds, he’ll hold his head high as soon as he loses 5, as long as the course is still set to reach the goal. Progress, not arrival, brings a sense of satisfaction. The scrawny teenager who wants to add muscle will likewise feel joy each time he lifts a little more weight than he did before. So, the real key to building discipline is simply to not quit, even if quitting has been a problem in the past.
Mark quit, but then he didn’t. Years after Mark’s missionary desertion, just before Paul died, Paul would write to Timothy, “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:9-11). Notice how many quitters deserted Paul: Demas, Crescans, and even Titus! But not Mark. Luke, Timothy, and Mark endured. Given Mark’s history with Paul, it would have been no small thing for Mark to hear that Paul had said of him, “he is very useful to me for ministry.” Mark got that vote of confidence that he once forfeited. He rebuilt trust.
If Mark could do it, so can we. Learn what motivated men like Mark and Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). This promise was not just for Paul, but to all who endure to the end (Matthew 24:13).
So, “lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees” (Hebrews 12:12). Whatever failures you regret, they are in the past. If you have repented and believe in Jesus, then they are under the blood. Be like Mark and get back at it. The Lord will make you very useful in ministry if you refuse to give up. As Jim Valvano famously said, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.”
