The Martian with Paul McDonald and Wailer Giles
Coming up on the Men at the Movies podcast, we go extraterrestrial with the Martian. This movie wrestles with themes of isolation and loneliness. But Mark teaches us how to make a survivable life out of our own shit. It’s worse that you can imagine, and you never want to talk about it again. We must resolve to go through it, not knowing what is on the other side, even if we’re unable to see a path forward. Every day, we lace up our boots, cultivate our crap, and solve one problem at a time. Join us as we discover God’s truth in this movie.
Quotes
You have to go through shit to get to where you need to go.
We need to wean from our kids as they get older. You have to let them decide what life they want to live.
We must have a resolve to go through the shit, not knowing what is on the other side, unable to see a path forward. The only thing in front of you is the muck and the slog and the only thing you can do is to lace up your boots the next day.
Jesus’ love was exemplified by an unrelenting willingness to die on the church’s behalf.
Themes
Isolation and loneliness
We need both hard consequences and a big brother approach (what Mark got with Paul and Barnabas). Different missions, different calling—they weren’t wrong in their attitude towards Mark. It reflected who they were, and Mark needed both.
Barnabas-a mentoring type
Paul-called to take the gospel to the Gentiles
Teddy—every focus was on safety, wants to protect his team and organization from suffering
Mitch—wants the crew to make the decision, to have the choice
How to make a survivable life out of our own shit—the things that were worse than we could imagine and never want to talk about again.
Resources
Male Friendship video
“I used to think that the worst thing in life was to end up alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel alone.” - Robin Williams
“Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, “Let us go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.” Barnabas wanted to take John, also called Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise to take him, because he had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in the work. They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.” - Acts 15:26-40 (NIV)
“After all the expectations
Shatter on the kitchen floor
You just see another human suffering
And wonder what the war was for” - David Wilcox, from “Start with the Ending”“The young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.” - G.K. Chesterton, from The World, The Flesh, and Father Smith
“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” - Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV)
Questions
Where do you feel alone and isolated? What do you do when you feel that way?
When have you experienced the hard consequences like Paul towards Mark?
When have you experienced the big brother approach like Barnabas towards Mark?
What worked better? How did you grow from each situation?
Why is having safety as the highest goal counterproductive?
How did you suffer, and how did you grow from that suffering?
How do your children suffer? What is the hardest part about watching them suffer?
Where have you felt like you were going to die? What was it like?
More info
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Edited and mixed by Grayson Foster
Logo and episode templates by Ian Johnston
Audio quotes performed by Britt Mooney, Paul McDonald, and Tim Willard, taken from Epic (written by John Eldredge) and Song of Albion (written by Stephen Lawhead).
Southerly Change performed by Zane Dickinson, used under license from Shutterstock.
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