Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
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Some friendships are loud when everything is fun, then quiet when things get messy. We start today with a gut-check definition that cuts through the noise: a real friend walks in when everybody else walks out. If you’ve ever felt abandoned in a hard season, or you want to become the kind of person others can count on, this short morning episode is for you.
We open Mark 2:1–12 and step into a packed house in Capernaum where Jesus is teaching. Four men carry their paralyzed friend, but the crowd blocks the door. Instead of turning around with a polite “we tried,” they climb up, tear through the roof, and lower him right in front of Jesus. The result is stunning: Jesus forgives sins, challenges the critics, and heals the man on the spot. The miracle matters, but so does what happens before it the grit, creativity, and faithful persistence of friends who refuse to bail out.
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Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mack, and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right.
I was reminded the other day of the definition of a friend, and it says that a real friend is someone who walks in when everybody else walks out. I've experienced that in my life, and I've been really grateful for the friends that have come in and been there with me and for me. And that kind of friendship is not always easy to find, but when you find it, you really, really appreciate it.
Today we're going to look in the Gospel of Mark in the second chapter. And in those first twelve verses, there's the story of a group of friends who did something really quite remarkable. Beginning in verse one. Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, and the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. And while he was preaching God's word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head, and then they lowered the man on his mat right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed
man, My son, your sins are forgiven. But some of the teachers of the religious law who were sitting there thought to themselves, What is he saying? This is blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus knew immediately what they were thinking, so he asked them, Why do you question this in your hearts? Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, Your sins are forgiven, or stand up, pick up your mat and walk? So I will prove to you that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. And then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, Stand up, pick up your mat and go home. So the man jumped up, grabbed his mat, and walked out through the stunned onlookers. And they were all amazed and praising God, exclaiming, We have never seen anything like this before. And
it's always amazing when Jesus does a miracle and does it in a powerful way like he did right here. Someone who was paralyzed and immediately was able to get up and walk away. That's absolutely incredible. But I want to talk about what happened before that, these four friends who brought their friend along. These guys were true friends. Now unfortunately, we don't know the backstory and why this man was paralyzed. Some believe that he was born that way. Others believe that this was a fairly recent occurrence. Maybe he'd fallen or something had happened where he was injured and was paralyzed. We don't know. But what we do know is that he had four friends who were willing to go the extra mile for him, that they were not about to bail out on him. They were going to do everything they could because they wanted their friend to be healed. Another definition I heard of friendship, a friend is someone who believes in you more than you do. They are your cheerleader, but they're a cheerleader who wants to get involved in the game. They want to try and help you be the best that you can be and do the best thing for you. These four friends came to the aid of their buddy who was not able to even get up and walk. They said, Man, Jesus is in town. Let's go. We need to go and see him because if we can get you to Jesus, Jesus can heal you. So we're gonna take you, we're gonna lift you up right now, and there's nothing's gonna stop us. They get to the house and the house is full. They didn't turn around and walk away saying, Well, we tried. No, they said, We're not gonna stop here. Let's find another way in. We've got to get him inside because we know what Jesus can do, and we know what our friend needs. So they tore a hole in the roof, they lowered their friend down, and Jesus healed them. And Jesus was impressed not only by the faith of the paralyzed man, but by the faith of his four buddies who had got him there. That's what a real friend is. A friend is a cheerleader who likes to get involved.
So my encouragement today is this be a cheerleader for your friends. Encourage them, lift them up, give them hope when they're struggling, but also be a cheerleader who's willing to get involved, to help get them out of their problems and the frustrations they're feeling and lift them up to a place where they can find the answers that they need. Be the cheerleader who gets involved for your friends and see the difference you can
make. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today. And I invite you to join me Monday to Friday right here on Starting Right with Danny Mack.
