“… Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.” — 2 Timothy 4:11 (NASB)
See Mark … In the Shadows
Most of us live in the shadows. Our names might show up on a Google search, but we wouldn’t fill a page in Wikipedia. A few college athletes make it to the pros, and fewer still to All-Star status. Individuals in the shadows are crucial to a team, a business or a community, but we assume the celebrated ones will have the most influence in our world.
Mark was a young man living in the days following Jesus’ resurrection. When two of the leaders, Paul and Barnabas, set out to take the message of Christ to other countries, they took Mark along.
Somewhere in the dangerous mission, Mark bailed on the team. When Paul and Barnabas made plans for a second trip, their disagreement over including Mark became so heated that they split up (Acts 15:37-41) and Mark was left behind.
Several years later, Paul was in a Roman prison facing his execution. He wrote to one of the church leaders, “Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.”
We know little of Mark’s life between that first and last episode. He lived in the shadows, but he was found worthy of service by the old sage he had once abandoned. Mark also recorded the life of Christ in the Gospel of Mark, part of the best-selling book of all time.
The Scriptures are filled with the names of people we know little about, who lived in the shadows — Mark, Joseph, Lydia, Andrew and Stephen, to name a few. But God used them in significant ways!
— Tom Petersburg, Catapult Ministries
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