“My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)” (Colossians 4:10)
It takes commitment, preparation and, well, beginning to become like the best of the Jesus-followers.
Today’s role-model (from Paul’s entourage of ministry teammates listed in Colossians 4) is a guy called Mark, tagged forever as “Barnabas’s cousin.” In fact, Mark is the guy who contributed to splitting up the dynamic missionary duo of Paul and Barnabas.
Mark went AWOL after joining them on a missionary journey, leaving the pair in the lurch. When it came time for the next trip, Paul wouldn’t take him. Barnabas wouldn’t leave him. So the friends went two different directions.
Here, though, we see that later on Mark has been there for Paul in prison – and Paul may even be sending Mark on a mission to the Colossians. He earned his way back on the team by starting again and being faithful to following Christ. Mark shows us that one big failure doesn’t have to be the end our service to the Lord; we can start again.
We must start again.
Think: Have you avoided serving Christ on a deeper level because you’ve failed in some obvious or painful way? Do you feel disqualified to use your life up for Jesus? What would keep you from starting again to humbly serve God in a new way?
Pray: If you’ve sidelined yourself from service to Christ because of a big failure in your life, ask God to give you the courage to start serving again. If you haven’t been sidelined, think of someone who has and pray for that person today.
Do: Read about the breakup of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 15:36-41 and then check out what else Paul says about Mark later on in 2 Timothy 4:11.