John Mark, The Famous Quiter Series

However it happened, God had a redeeming chapter for Mark to live. When the second missionary journey was being planned, Barnabas asked that John Mark be able to join them. Paul refused, calling him a “deserter.” Barnabas saw more value for him to work with John Mark than go with Paul. Paul left with a new partner, Silas, and Barnabas left with John Mark to go back to Cyprus, their beginning point of the first journey. Though the rest of the New Testament is primarily about Paul, John Mark finds his place later in some of the churches Paul has planted. In Colossians 4:10 and Philemon, John Mark is mentioned as active in the ministry.

What were the factors in the redeeming of John Mark? We could easily describe the major problem of Mark as immaturity. After all, it is always present in young adults and often a continuing problem of older adults. It is the presence of self-centeredness, the attitude of arrogance, the absence of the experience of learning failures. The redeeming quality of such issues is the growth of a decided heart in a believer. From the commandments of “one God” to the warning of Jesus, “you cannot serve two masters,” the call of God on our life is to grow a committed heart for God. Andy Andrews, in his book The Traveler’s Gift, speaks of the “decided heart” in this way. “Most people fail at whatever they attempt because of an undecided heart. Should I or should I not? Should I go forward or go back? The undecided heart searches for an escape. A committed heart does not wait for conditions to be exactly right. Conditions are never exactly right. To wait, to wonder, to doubt, to be indecisive is to disobey God. I must have a decided heart.”

Somewhere in the twenty years between John Mark deserting the mission trip and Paul’s request that he come to him, Mark developed a “decided heart.” It may have been as he wrote the words of that first gospel, listening to the stories of Jesus or it may have been on that mission trip with Barnabas. The news about Mark’s ministry in his later years speaks of his decided heart.

Perhaps you remember the account of Thomas Edison’s search for the proper ingredients for a light bulb. He lacked only one thing, the tiny strand that would connect the two electric poles that would not burn up when the current is turned on. After hundreds of trials, using up to two spools of thread in experiments, he finally found a mixture of tar and that worked. He did not give up. He had a “decided heart.”

The story is told of a man wanting to become a gold prospector in the days of the Gold Rush. He sold all his possessions, bought a tool kit and bag for prospecting, and began his search. He had heard that a rich gold vein was in a certain area and he went there to find his fortune. After a long time of fruitless search, he buried his tool kit where he was last searching and walked away. A few years later a large company with the instruments to detect gold came to the area. They found the large gold vein and on one side of the vein they discovered the prospector’s tools. He was six inches from his fortune. He lacked a “decided heart.”