Get Back Up

Get Back Up

Jeremiah, say to the people, “This is what the Lord says: ‘When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back?’” Jeremiah 8:4 New Living Translation

John Mark, writer of the earliest Gospel (the Gospel of Mark), was an assistant of three early missionaries—Barnabas, Paul, and Peter. Mark was taken along as an assistant by Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey. However, for unknown reasons, he left them to return to Jerusalem before the trip was completed. Because of this, when Barnabas wanted to take him along on the second trip, Paul flatly refused. The sharp disagreement that resulted broke the team apart: Barnabas took Mark (his cousin) with him, and Paul chose Silas, and the two pairs went their separate ways (Acts 15:36-41).

Later, however, it appears that Paul and Mark were reconciled and that Mark once again served as his assistant. In Colossians, Paul refers to him as a co-worker and suggests that he may soon be sending him to visit the church in Colosse (Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24). Still later, when Paul was awaiting execution in prison in Rome, he asked Timothy to bring Mark with him, for he thought Mark would be helpful to him in his ministry (2 Timothy 4:11).

Mark’s story reminds us that with God, we can overcome human failings, and restore rocky relationships for the sake of Christ and the Good News. Early failures do not disqualify a person from a life of effective service and even lasting significance. First John 3:20 says, “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.” Our hearts condemn us when we recognize that we’ve fallen short of God’s standard in some area of our lives. As a result of that condemnation we oftentimes feel insecure in approaching God or the people of God. But the Scripture says God is greater than our hearts. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). As a believer, Christ is our righteousness, He is our goodness, He is our Advocate, and He is our liberty.

We would have never learned to walk if we stayed on the ground after the first, second, fifth, or twentieth time we fell down as a child. So isn’t it rather foolish for us to throw in the “spiritual towel” when we’ve made a mistake. If you’ve fallen, get back up! The Lord has forgiven you. And you are still useful for the work of the Lord!