Apr06
The list of why life’s not easy is long.
Wouldn’t you agree that making mistakes ranks high on the list? But sometimes the dreadful experience of making a mistake is not made worse with criticism, but instead an encourager offers help.
He or she does this in many ways, from something as simple as sharing a “war story” or as grandiose as planning another missionary trip.
That was how Barnabas encouraged John Mark.
Paul is one of my major heroes, so if John Mark had failed him so much that Paul didn’t want him to go on the next journey, I probably would have understood and supported his decision. (And told John Mark I’d see him when I got back.)
But Barnabas was willing to give John Mark another chance. So two journeys were made. Paul and Silas went one way, and Barnabas, believing in John Mark, took him and went another.
I should have called my mother Barnabas the day she took off work to watch her sixth grader lead the whole grade school in our National Anthem. When I forgot the words after “O say, can you see?“ and had to finish the rest of it by humming, she sat there smiling and then clapped like I’d won an Oscar when it was over. Her help for me that day falls under “selective amnesia.“
I had a chance to make it up to her in the ninth grade at our Mother/Daughter Banquet, but I forgot the third verse to a four verse story song. Yet she smiled and clapped and still believed I could sing a song that would bring glory to Jesus. And eventually I did. Life is so different when a Barnabas is nearby. I have needed a Barnabas often. Most of us do.
The story of Barnabas and John Mark shows that even the most “profitable” of us sometimes do things that might make someone give up on us. But it also shows the difference a Barnabas makes.
What Barnabas did for John Mark paid off, because later Paul, waiting in a Roman jail to die, sent for his friend Mark: “Get Mark,“ he wrote, “and bring him with you, for he is profitable for my ministry ((II Tim. 4:11).
And so I pray—“Lord, Let me show mercy, for You have shown me mercy. Help me give grace when others have none to give.“
Jackina-
You were my Barnabus during my college years. You showed me grace and mercy when I was least deserving. I will not soon forget! You will always hold a special place in my heart. You showed me tough love. I know I did not understand then but I have grown since my college years. I will forever treasure the life lessons you taught me. You taught me how to write and how to forgive. I have started my own writing career and I feel I owe it in part to you. I am about to have my first piece published. I have been told by many that I have a gift of writing and I think I owe it in part to you. Thanks for teaching me so much in such a short time period. I learned more than you know. I started reading your novel. I can hear your voice at times. I feel honored to have had the privilege to be taught by the best.