Martian Perseverance

Posted On July 26, 2020

” . . . we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.”

Romans 5:3-4 NIV

If you haven’t seen The Martian, it’s about an astronaut named Mark Watney who gets separated from his crew during an emergency evacuation from Mars. He is hit by flying debris from the communications antenna during a storm and presumed dead. The crew is forced to leave without him. The next day he wakes up stranded, alone and injured, on a hostile planet. As he explains in the video below, in order to survive, there will be several obstacles he must overcome.

Watney’s future is bleak, to say the least. But he decides he is not going to give up trying to get back home. He faces each problem and refuses to accept failure. That’s his only hope of survival. This movie, for me, is a lesson on perseverance. We face problems every day. How we respond to them makes a difference. In The Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren reminds us that one of God’s purposes for us is to become like Christ. He wants us to mature spiritually into His image by developing Christlike character. This happens as we learn to rely on God in the midst of challenges and problems, trusting Him to help us face them. Life is difficult. It’s supposed to be. That’s how we grow.

“Life is a series of problems. Every time you solve one, another is waiting to take its place. Not all of them are big, but all are significant in God’s growth process for you.”

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

The first problem Watney tackles is the food problem. He does not have enough food to last until the next crew is scheduled to arrive, so he must figure out a way to grow his own. Luckily, he happens to be a botanist. If anyone can figure out how to grow crops on a planet where nothing grows, he’s the one for the job. He builds a greenhouse inside the Mars habitat, hauls in dirt from outside, and makes fertilizer from . . . well, I’ll let you watch the movie to figure out how he does that. He has some vacuum-sealed whole potatoes that were brought from Earth that he can plant, but he must figure out how to make enough water for the crops. He has an oxygenator which makes oxygen and hydrazine fuel from the Mars Descent Vehicle. He can extract hydrogen from the hydrazine and burn it with the oxygen to create water. But there’s still another problem. NASA was very careful not to send anything flammable on the mission, so he has to find something to burn. As shown in the video, he solves that problem, and gets ready to make some water. Here’s what happens on his first attempt:

Watney’s calculations were slightly off. That’s what led to the explosion. But he did not give up. He made some adjustments and tried again, this time successfully. A couple of things stood out to me in this video. First of all, Mark Watney, a botanist, is perfectly suited to the job that must be done. God often gives us problems that we are uniquely qualified to solve. Rick Warren points out that God wants to transform our character, not our personalities. He gives each of us unique talents and abilities and He wants us to develop them and use them. But that only gets us part of the way. Notice that none of Watney’s studies or efforts would have mattered if he could not have found something to burn. What did he find? He found a wooden crucifix brought to Mars by another crewmate. He took some shavings from it and then said to Christ, “I’m counting on You.” What an object lesson! Our efforts only get us so far. We must rely on Christ to get us the rest of the way. And our faith may be what helps someone else. Watney didn’t bring the crucifix on the mission. It was another member of the crew. But the faith of his crewmate made the difference for Watney.

“God uses his Word, people, and circumstances to mold us. All three are indispensable for character development. God’s Word provides the truth we need to grow, God’s people provide the support we need to grow, and circumstances provide the environment we need to practice Christlikeness. If you study and apply God’s Word, connect regularly with other believers, and learn to trust God in difficult circumstances, I guarantee you will become more like Jesus.”

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

Watney got the potato crops going. They grew even better than he expected. He harvested some, and replanted others. He also figured out solutions for many other problems he was facing. Things were looking up. Then this happened:

Just when Watney felt like he had everything under control, the habitat material around the airlock got a small hole in it, causing explosive decompression of the hab. It nearly killed him. It also destroyed his potato crops and ruined the soil so that he could not plant any more. To make matters worse, a resupply rocket that NASA launched to send him more food exploded shortly after takeoff. Watney’s food supply was again dangerously low, and everyone was out of ideas. Have you ever felt like everything was going wrong? Like you can’t win no matter what you do? I know I have. That’s when I have to remind myself to press on and depend on God to get me through. Rick Warren tells us:

“God has a purpose behind every problem. He uses circumstances to develop our character. In fact, he depends more on circumstances to make us like Jesus than he depends on our reading the Bible. . . . God uses problems to draw you closer to himself. . . . Your most profound and intimate experiences of worship will likely be in your darkest days — when your heart is broken, when you feel abandoned, when you’re out of options, when the pain is great — and you turn to God alone. It is during suffering that we learn to pray our most authentic, heartfelt, honest-to-God prayers.”

I have found this to be true. When I’m feeling the worst is when I need God the most. And the more I learn to depend on Him, the more automatic it becomes to reach out to Him. Pretty soon I find myself trusting Him more and more, and before I know it, my faith has become stronger. I have become stronger. And then I am ready to face the next challenge. The trick is not to give up, no matter how much I want to, no matter how many times I fail. And I have failed a lot! But I can’t let that stop me from trying again. Rick Warren reminds us that when we’re facing problems, we should remember that God has a plan. He also goes through all the pain with us. When we hurt, He hurts, but He knows what’s best. Even in the midst of suffering we can be grateful that He will use our problems to fulfill His plan. This is hard. It’s difficult to rejoice and be grateful when we don’t even feel like getting out of bed. But this is when we have to persist and be patient. We have to think of it as a spiritual training session. We have to get up and just begin. The struggle will pay off and make us stronger as long as we don’t give up.

“You know you are maturing when you begin to see the hand of God in the random, baffling, and seemingly pointless circumstances of life. If you are facing trouble right now, don’t ask, ‘Why me?’ Instead ask, ‘What do you want me to learn?’ Then trust God and keep on doing what’s right. . . . Don’t give up — grow up!”

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

So what exactly are we supposed to do? How do we make all this character building happen? First of all, we don’t. It’s the job of the Holy Spirit living in us to develop us into the image of Christ. Our job is to let Him. As Rick Warren explains, this happens as we make choices every day to do what’s right and then trust that the Holy Spirit will give us what we need to do it. He will give His power, His strength, His love, His faith — whatever we need. We just have to ask. We have to step out in faith first and then trust that God will help us move forward. This requires a shift in thinking. C. S. Lewis explains it this way:

“That is why the real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind. We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. . . . This is the whole of Christianity. There is nothing else.”

I think of it as clinging to Christ. All day, every day, hang on to Him for dear life. The rest will follow. When I cling to Him, I pray more, I read the Bible more, I think of others more than myself, I stay strong in the midst of struggles, and so on, and so on . . . I become more like Him. And when I mess up, I have to turn back to Him and cling tighter. It takes mental discipline to do this. It takes courage. It takes perseverance. Most of all, it takes faith.

“Becoming like Christ is a long, slow process of growth. Spiritual maturity is neither instant nor automatic; it is a gradual, progressive development that will take the rest of your life.”

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

There will be times we will fail. But we can’t let that stop us. We have to keep trying. C. S. Lewis reminds us that God wants us to keep coming to Him:

“God knows our situation; He will not judge us as if we had no difficulties to overcome. What matters is the sincerity and perseverance of our will to overcome them. . . . We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.”

Mark Watney’s crew was on their way back home to Earth when they found out that Watney was still alive. They unanimously decided to turn around and go back to Mars to attempt to rescue him. They didn’t want to go home without their crewmate. Overcoming all the problems we face will pay off. Max Lucado says, “Unhappiness on earth cultivates a hunger for heaven. . . . We are not happy here because we are not at home here.” We will only be truly happy when we get to heaven, our true home. The struggles we face in this life help to prepare us for the next. But we can’t do it alone. We need to rely on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We also need to remember that God works through other people. This is why it’s important to remain in fellowship with other believers. When we work together and support each other, we can help each other get home!

“Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.”

James 1:12 NIV

We will face problems in this life. We will have obstacles to overcome. We will fail. We can choose to give up or we can choose to get to work!

“God’s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ.”

Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

This week’s Scripture passages remind us to persevere as we face life’s challenges. There is a printer-friendly pdf version below the image. I have also included a video of my daughter and me singing “Press On,” a beautiful song written by Dan Burgess. It was orginally recorded by the group Selah, and they do a much better job singing it than we do. But this song is very special to me, so I thought it would be nice to include a more personal version. It’s all about perseverance . . .

” . . . Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:13-14 NIV

References:

• “Best Hollywood scene the martian movie.” YouTube, uploaded by Anupam Mitra, 15 August 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgTBEur9QX8.
• Lewis, C. S. “Mere Christianity.” The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics, Harper San Francisco, 2002, pp. 1-177.
• Lucado, Max. Grace for the Moment: Inspirational Thoughts for Each Day of the Year. J. Countryman, 2000.
• “Malfunction Scene : The Martian 2015.” YouTube, uploaded by Special Scene, 24 May 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwGd4lBb6II.
• The Martian. Dir. Ridley Scott. 20th Century Fox, 2015.
• “The Martian (2015) – Funny Explosion Scene.” YouTube, uploaded by CinemaClips, 17 March 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGfzTJlo-Ag.
• “The Martian: I’m Alive (Short).” YouTube, uploaded by Graham Blair, 17 February 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EobsabSUP8&t=5s.
• Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Zondervan, 2002.
• “‘you do the math’. memorable movie scenes. The Martian (2015).” YouTube, uploaded by cgeorge2k9, 28 December 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDYCLFE86Po.

Images:

• Mars featured image by Aynur Zakirov from Pixabay