Garth Heckman
The David Alliance
TDAgiantSlayer@Gmail.com
Mark was probably a little spoiled, a little soft, and a little privileged… I have a hard time around people like that. But Mark learned a very hard but good lesson in his life simply by hanging around with the right people. And many times the right people feel like the wrong people… until the end of your life.
Quick question: are you hanging around the right people? Are they the people that will call you on your excuses, your mistakes, your rebellion and your apathy? I hope you have those friends around you… if not you may never experience what Mark experienced.
You can run from the rub… but it will cost you.
Marks life had what I call the rub….
The rub… deadlift bars can teach you a lot…
The gnurl… it rips your hands up… people want the smooth bar, but you can’t life heavy weights with the smooth bar… it will slip out of your hands. The gnurl builds callouses and allows you to have it stick in your hand… the more aggressive he gnurl the better it is for a deadlifter … yes a soft gnurl is easy on the hands and it does not give you callouses, but you will only be able to lift so much weight… you won’t reach your potential.
God has put people in our lives to be the rub, to be the gnurl. Don’t over look this. It is actually a blessing. The longer you have people in your life who rub you the wrong way, the more you will grow spiritually. If you run from the rub you rob yourself from the Rich spiritual life.
If you asked me 35 years ago about the people in my life who were really hard to be around, the ones who just had something against me, they pushed my buttons… If I had to name them back then it would have been super easy… but today at 60, Those people are still in my life, but I see them in a different point of view - as a blessing - so it would be hard to say I don’t like them or want them in my life like I would have said back then.
There is no doubt in my mind that early in John Marks life he would have been willing to be a martyr for Jesus - but after the rub… he planted a church in Etheopia and was martyred there for his faith. He learned to toughen up and live straight for Jesus. So embrace those who rub you the wrong way… they are probably went there by God… and if they were sent by satan… then what a fool he is to give you such a blessing!