Week 97
John Mark—Willing to Receive Help After a Failure
Point to Emphasize: As a young person, do you let your failure discourage you, or are you willing to receive help from others to become useful?
Reference Reading: Acts 12:25; 13:13, footnote 131; 15:36-39; Colossians 4:10-11; 2 Timothy 4:11; Mark 1:1, footnote 11
Memory Verse: …He will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared unto every good work. (2 Timothy 2:21b)
Sample Story
Even though you all want to do everything well, you will experience failure. Failure has consequences that are long-lasting and can affect the rest of your life. I am using the word “failure.” What is failure? [Let them answer.] Yes, failure is the lack of success or the falling short of a goal. The Bible tells of someone who had a failure. Let’s see how he responded to his failure.
John, who was surnamed Mark, grew up in a Christian home. More than that, some members of his family were very active in what the Lord was doing to spread the good news about Jesus in those days. Mark’s family had a prayer meeting in their home, and his cousin was Barnabas.
Mark accompanied Barnabas and Saul on their first journey to take the gospel to the Gentiles. He was young and was with them as their attendant. However, something happened during the trip, and he left. Although the Bible does not explain why Mark left, he did not continue on the journey with them. His departure must have been a discouragement to Paul and his companions. Because of his withdrawal from the first journey, Paul later refused to take him on his second journey. When Mark left, he failed. Mark’s failure affected those he was traveling with and disqualified him from a subsequent assignment.
How do you feel when you fail at something? Sometimes when you fail, you blame others instead of admitting your own shortcomings. For example, “I lost in the spelling bee because the teacher gave me the hardest word. She gave others easy words.” Or you say, “Mom’s standards for cleaning the room are too high.” Other times, when you fail, you dwell on your mistake, you tell yourself you are no good, and you give up. You say, “I just can’t do math. Math is not for me. I’ll never be good at math.” Other times, after you fail, you just want to forget about it and move on too quickly. “I’ll just forget about it.” We can all agree that it is hard for us to accept our failure.
When I was about your age, at my elementary school, students in 4th through 6th grade were allowed to leave campus during lunch to buy snacks and candy. But my mom never allowed me to go, and I had promised her that I wouldn’t. One day, my classmates invited me to go across the street. For a while, I struggled inside. I knew I had made a promise to my mom, and she trusted me. But part of me didn’t understand why she was so strict, so I decided to go with my classmates anyway. That same day, my mom happened to be visiting the school. We saw each other just as I was leaving campus. I felt terrible. I had failed my mom, and I felt like the worst daughter. Right away, I blamed my friends—it was their fault. When I got home, I complained to my mom about her being so strict. I went to my room, closed the door, and stayed there for a long time. My mom kept knocking on my door. Eventually, I let her in. She helped me understand why it wasn’t safe for me to be outside the school during school hours. That conversation helped me understand why she had been so strict. I realized she knew much more than I thought and that she always had a good reason for her rules. That conversation helped me a lot. [Storyteller, share a personal story of accepting help from someone older than you after a failure.]
Let’s go back to our story about Mark. After his failure, he must have been willing to receive help. In Paul’s later years, he said, “Take Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for the ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11). This shows that, over time, Mark changed after his failure. He was no longer the same person he had been when he was younger.
Have you ever gone to an older person and talked about a failure you had, or about how discouraged you feel when you fail? It is a healthy practice to do this. But many of you probably haven’t done it. We don’t like to admit to others that we have failed. Yet the truth is, we all fail. As you continue through your teenage years, you will experience many failures. What really makes the difference is how you respond to your failures. If you keep burying your failures as if they never happened, one day you will be faced with a pile of them. If you keep blaming others for your failures, you will never receive the help you need. How we handle our failures will determine what kind of young person we will become. I hope you will seriously consider what we have shared today. Maybe even talk about it with someone older and wiser whom you trust—like your parents, grandparents, etc.