John-Mark

Today my pastor preached the last sermon in his series from Colossians, and he spent about 10 minutes at the end talking about the people that Paul names in his closing remarks, and one of them struck me. See, there's this guy by the name of John-Mark who accompanied Paul and Barnabus on their first missionary journey. But about halfway through, for reasons unknown, John-Mark deserts them. Then, Barnabus wants to take him along again on their second journey, and Paul flat-out says "No, we're not taking him with us." However, later on, (in Colossians) Paul mentions him as giving greetings and says to welcome him if he was to travel to Colossae. Then in II Timothy, Paul requests them to send Mark to him because he was "helpful to me in my ministry". The reason I recount this tale is that I feel alot like John-Mark. Regardless of what some of my friends would say, it's not being good that gets you into heaven, and despite the fact that they think I'm a "good person", I'm really not (more on this topic in a bit). And I spent a fair amount of my life ignoring God. Sure, I acted the part, but I "deserted". And now I'm coming back.