Setbacks and Regrets… Hello Hump Day Readers, I hope this middle-of-the-week devotion inspires you to get over the hump and end your week with gratitude and joy. And that is why I am talking about  setbacks and regrets—they are “joy-robbers.” I go down this memory-lane today because of two things: 1) I am studying Mark’s gospel, including the man himself; and 2) After cleaning out stuff on the shelves, I was prancing down memory-lane with some of that stuff, and some of the regrets of those times. This was not my intention but it happened.

I’ve always been one to get rid of regrets because they knock the joy out of life and they    insanely invade your thoughts and create all kinds of scenarios from the past. If we embrace living the “wish I could-a, should-a or would-a” in regards to something, we get stuck in wet cement and it holds us back. Even the Apostle Paul had his setbacks and regrets, so I want to share his story with you because through it all, God actually took the setbacks and the   regrets and turned them into history to teach us!

Mark, or John Mark, as Scripture says it, had a weak start. He was the nephew of Barnabas, and his uncle asked him to come on a missionary journey with him and the Apostle Paul. Quite the honor, however, things didn’t go well, of which we are not told why, but in the end, Mark changed his mind and went home.

Again, Paul and Barnabas debarked on another missionary journey and again, Barnabas suggested they take Mark with them. This didn’t please Paul; in fact he was very opposed to it because, to him, Mark had abandoned them. Paul saw it as a setback in his mission, and he regretted Mark joining them. So, the answer was no!

Yet, we know Mark worked on his problems and eventually repaired his relationship with Paul, because in 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul write to his young pupil, “Only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you when you come, for he will be helpful to me in my ministry.” [NLT]

Mark was also very close to Peter who actually referred to him as ‘his son.’ We know Mark ended up writing the Gospel that bears his name, but most theologians believe much of his letter was probably dictated by Peter. Truly, Mark was at the epicenter of many incredible and significant biblical events. And yes, he had a huge setback at one point, but he didn’t let that stop him. Mark recommitted himself to the Lord and ended up as a bona fide Gospel writer—quite a distinction!

And that tiff with Paul? Look at those words from Timothy again—”he will be helpful”—how did Paul know Mark would now be a helpful companion? Because he kept track of that young man and had seen that Mark worked out his short-comings, and Paul did the same, by dumping his regrets…and the rest is truly history—the history we need to realize what to do when setbacks and regrets invade our thoughts and lives!

We’ve all had setbacks in life; we all have regrets of things we’ve done or left undone. I think some of our worst times are those where we actually “bailed out on God” and tried it our way which set us back even more and added to our regrets! But did you ever think that those setbacks and regrets can turn out to be a set-up for something greater?

God is calling us to share our testimonies to help others. We could say “our testing(s) can become a testimony!” Think about it: if you came through an addiction and now you are clean and sober you have “been there” and can share that testimony with someone else   going through the same thing because you get it and you’ve been there. Our testing and break-through tells the world that God is not done with us yet, God is bringing us through the set-back, helping us get rid of regrets that we cannot change, and putting our feet back on “solid ground.”

Let’s go back to Mark one more time—can you imagine the shame he lived with by leaving his uncle and even more-so, the great Apostle Paul? People knew what happened because he came home; how did they treat him? Worse yet, how did he “treat himself?” It may have taken him a while, but his faith in God helped him mend those wounds and get back out there in life. And because he was willing to shed the past, he wrote us a Gospel that gives us and all people hope for today and for the future.

Dear readers, there are millions of people in this world today who cannot move forward because they do not know the God of love, grace, mercy and forgiveness, or they do know God but they have no intimacy with God—they live on the margins “of the Bible” instead of living in the Word.

We need to be like Barnabas and Paul and take a “missionary trip” to someone who needs to know that what is broken in their lives can be fixed by a loving God. But we can only do this by letting go of our own setbacks and regrets. It’s not easy, but we have assurance in God’s Word from Luke’s Gospel. Remember Mary’s amazement when Gabriel told her she would become the mother of God and she asked: “How can this be?” Gabriel replied with words that echo throughout the heavens and the earth today, giving people strength, courage and hope: “with God nothing is impossible.”

OK, you’ve got your marching orders, let’s take a trip with God and share our testimonies and help mend broken lives, AMEN!