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The Originals, Week 5, Day 4

by David Joynt on February 07, 2018


 JOHN MARK: FAILURE

ACTS 13:13

 

Mark took the opportunity. He was commissioned, with Paul,
and sent off to reach out. How exciting it must have been to
have the disciples pray for him and bless this new endeavor.

 

And then Mark failed. He gave up after a short stint and came
home. This failure left Paul and Barnabas alone and without
support and compromised the trip.

 

Reading biographies one truth is common to every life—we all
fail. Our resources don't match the challenges. Our energy is
too small for the climb. Our emotions let us down. We
miscalculate. Everyone, at some point, stands in Mark's place.
Unless, of course, we avoid significant challenges, which is
itself a failure.

 

 

Have you tried something big and not carried it off?

 

 

How did you feel?

 

 

Tags: opportunity, failture

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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