You Are a Martian

In the movie "The Martian," Matt Damon is left behind on Mars during an exploration with his team of Astronauts.  They thought he was dead.  But he lived.
Every single day was a new reminder that he was the only one on the planet.  He had to find a way to live, and managed to grow food on a planet that has never grown forms of agriculture.
Everyday, he would take actual steps on Mars and be the first person in human history to do so.  In Mars, Matt Damon lived as a Martian.  His paradigm grew into a life of firsts.  In order to survive, he would have to be the first person to do everything.  There would be no peer review.  There would be no check-ins.  He was committed to creating something out of nothing.

A life of firsts.  This is dangerously uncomfortable.  We are a blueprint driven society.  We are platform driven.  We do things because people have gone before us.  We create based on templates. We derive values based on what has been handed to us.  We know intuitively how to make things better, but we have no idea how to make something from nothing.  We are good with the process between 1 to 2.  But we dare not venture the distance between Zer0 & 1ne.

I love when people quote Ecclesiastes to me when they are trying to tame my ideas: "Everything has been done.  There is nothing new under the sun."  They quote it as if God is done with new ideas.  They boldly declare misunderstood Scripture because nothing in their life has been born from dust.  They base their life on what others could not do.  They rationalize away their life of mediocrity by pointing to a quote they know nothing of.  How many of you have said this to yourself "Well, there is nothing new under the Sun."  How many of you know there is something which only you can do in this world, but you dare not try for fear of failing miserably - or publicly?

You are right to some extent.  There is nothing new to God.  But there is plenty new to a misinformed world.  There is nothing new under the Sun, except the Son has not revealed some things to the world.  Everything has been done by God, but not by humans.  You cannot out-create the Creator, but He is constantly dropping vision into people to tap into what He has already created.  If all these tech companies said there is nothing new under the sun, then why do you subscribe to their products?  If there is nothing new under the sun, they why do you keep up with what is new?

There is plenty new under the Son (S-U-N, or S-O-N, I'm just an S-O-B that needs a best friend / I've been S-O-L more than time can tell, and I haven't gotten up since the time I fell)  

When we hope for things not seen, there may not be a visible starting point from where to begin hoping.  Things not seen is just what it means.  They do not exist yet.  You are hoping for a first.  You are believing for something that has no starting point.  As Creatives who mimic our Creator, we must be in the business of something from nothing.  We must be engaged in the process of 0 to 1.  We cannot expect even a little outward manifestation before hoping, working, creating, or sowing.  If you are alive, you are in contention of living in this "life of firsts."  You can expect when there is nothing in sight.  You can believe when there is no social media to back you up.  You can desire when the entire world says "Nothing is new under the sun."  You can be a Martian.  You have the right to be intimately involved in something coming out of nothing.

When you are on a mission to live with respect to your calling, every step you take will be cultivated by yourself.  There is nothing wrong with extracting from others or being inspired by like-minded individuals.  But at the end of the day, you are an original.  If you were not meant to be an original, then you would not have been created.  The deep fear of failing or being wrong is completely overdone and overstated.  The insecurities that come up with doing first-type things are normal.  All you have to do is put it aside.  We worry too much about overcoming fear.  Just put fear aside.  It's normal.  We worry so much about being secure.  Just put insecurity aside.  We are not called to live with the absence of thorns.  We are called to live in spite of all of them.  I believe deeply that we can put inhibiting factors to the side, rather than obsessing over being rid of them, or even being triumphant over them.  Triumph in a true sense, has less to do with putting a spear in the face of defeat / fear, and more to do with moving forward in courage.  It is here where we start to gaze into the invisible - the things that we thought were never there, but are actually quite alive!

I wrote this because most of us have been more discouraged by the world and people, than encouraged.  This is corny and silly.  I have learned that I personally cannot live according to what others simply cannot do.  My outcomes in life will not be a reflection of what is already under the sun.  If we are simply re-creating things under the sun, then eventually we will fry under its heat.  Instead, as Martians, we illuminate the things of the Son that He so desperately seeks to create, under the Sun.  Peace, and much love to you - Jeevo (Your Resident Martian).