We Need Mature Visionaries

I wrote this a year or so ago. I am posting it as is.

I am not exactly sure who needs to hear this message, but the Lord has been speaking to me quite strongly today as I have been working here on the farm. This comes from someone that understands first hand what it is like to be a visionary, and to see the effect that it can have on a family, good and bad. I think some of the people I have met on social media will be able to relate to what is shared here.

First off, if you are a parent of a child that is a visionary, it can be a tough row to hoe. Young visionaries must be homeschooled. The public school system has been designed (by communist thinking) to mold children’s minds into being conformists. Obviously for that reason I think most children should be homeschooled, but with a visionary it will be critical. The visionary comes hardwired to think outside the box. They don’t see things the way most people see them. When communist take over a country, most of the visionaries are taken out and shot. The government knows that they will not be able to force them to follow mindlessly along. I am sure that Covid was staged in part to identify these individuals within the culture. I would go to the grocery store and be the only one without a mask. I would have people come up to me saying they wished they could be so bold. It wasn’t so much boldness on my part. I just don’t feel compelled to observe cultural norms that real science deemed silly. Scientists in California told people for years that masks will not help with smoke from a forest fire, but change their message with Covid, something way smaller than smoke particles.

I went to public schools and it was torture. I was the child that was constantly caught day dreaming, looking out the window. For the first 15 years of my life I thought I must be stupid. I just couldn’t concentrate on what everyone else was being forced to do. I was very much in my own little world. I did well in music, both band and choir. If it wasn’t for my high music grades I never would have graduated. Fortunately I have a wise mother that said to me my junior year of high school, “college isn’t for everyone”. To have a parent that didn’t make me feel forced to continue down this worldly educational path was a great blessing.

I am a Gen X’er. I am sure many of the latch key kids from the 70’s and 80’s will be able to relate with me when I say, that when I would get home from school I was out tromping around the woods, building forts and getting muddy! But most of all I was consumed by fishing. So much so that one day my dad said to me in frustration, “you just better forget about all this fishing, it will never amount to anything”. Before I gave my heart to the Lord at age 17, fishing was my god. When I was 16 I was working at a fly fishing store and met a man from England that was a very famous European Match Fisherman. His name was Mick Thill. He was a gold metal winner twice in the World Match Fishing Championships. In fact he is the only individual to win a gold metal in Match Fishing and the World Ice Fishing Championship as well. I had no clue who the guy was, but he ended up asking me to be a member of the first United States Match Fishing Team. We competed in 1987 in Ireland in the World Youth Match Fishing Championship. I will never forget going with my father to the Detroit airport and getting ready to board first class British Airways and turning to him and saying “dad do you remember when you told me this would never amount to anything”. We still get a good laugh about it. God was very gracious to me to have given me this opportunity when I was a junior in High School. It took a lot of pressure off of me, while everyone else was focusing on and getting stressed out trying to get into a good collage. It is very important that a visionary is encouraged to excel at whatever they are passionate about. Read that sentence again if you need to. I learned a lot about myself during this time.

A few years later I was dating a girl that was going to MSU. I had gone to visit her at her parents house and she was finishing some of her home work. She was upset and I ask her what was wrong. She said that her advanced calculus class was given a story problem and no one in the class was able to come up with the answer. The professor ended up giving the answer to the students but told them they needed to still figure out all the equations. I asked her what the story problem was. She read it to me and in about 10 seconds I told her the answer. She about fell out of her chair. She was so upset. How did this guy that almost didn’t graduate from high school, so matter of factly just come up with the answer, when no one else could. At the time I was thinking it didn’t seem all that hard. This was an important moment for me. I started to realize that my mind doesn’t work the same way other people’s minds work. I do not feel I am somehow superior, only very different. I couldn’t even get though Algebra 1 in High School. Most people can do that. I don’t think they are superior to me, just different.

I started to excel at the things I was passionate about. In fact I learned that was the secret at least for me to be successful. Other peoples lives are touched, when someone is skilled at something they are passionate about. I see it all the time as I share with people on social media about my passion for gardening to the Glory of God. I hear quite a few comments from people thanking me for inspiring them. But right here is where I need to point out something about visionaries. The number one struggle to be a successful visionary is work ethic, not just the ability to work hard, but to be able to motivate yourself. Remember, if you are a visionary, you hold something within you that no one else is feeling. It will be pretty much up to you to see to it that the vision is pursued, and how it is pursued. The vast majority of visionaries stagnate and are discouraged a lot of the time. Because the system did squeeze them into the mold or they never developed the ability to be self motivated to achieve their vision. Visionaries are often self educated. I am. Many times after I have taught a gardening seminar, people will assume I have some kind of a collage degree.

Another way to look at this, is seeing the visionary as the pioneer. They are the ones that are looking forward, to go where no one else has considered going. Or is too afraid to go. It took very special wives to be married to the men that foraged the paths west in the 1800’s. A pioneer feels compelled. They are restless. They are very strong individuals. If you try to force them to conform to what you want, they will be miserable. They often are very rich or quite poor. Very few visionaries are middle class. If you choose to marry one, you may feel like you are along for the ride. They do not make the best team players. They can be leaders, but generally do not feel compelled to lead. In fact they wish others would join them because they feel compelled the same way. But very few people will be able to relate to the inner workings of a true visionary. They will be accused of having too independent of a spirit. They will be told that they don’t properly submit to mans authority structures. They will often be told that they are not accountable to anyone as they should be. This is a difficult one for them because people just don’t understand where they are coming from and how they perceive things. Even if the visionary takes the time to explain their heart to someone else, often the other person will just not get it. They often will be found in the background not really feeling like they are truly a part of the group. But be fine with it. They don’t necessarily feel like they have to belong. That is what allows them to be pioneers, with the ability to strike out to the unknown. Most people could not walk in their shoes because of having to belong. That is where the marriage can really struggle. When the wife does feel very much compelled to belong but the husband if fine not too.

Immature visionaries often sit on the sidelines wishing someone would encourage them. There will be young men that will read this and get tears in their eyes. If you are the parent of a visionary, or the spouse of a visionary, it can be a difficult situation. The immature visionary (there are 50 year old immature visionaries) can be really difficult to live with at times. Because of that, it works against them, keeping from them the one thing they need most. Someone that will love and encourage them. It takes a parent or spouse that is very mature to rise above the situation and see it for what it is. An immature visionary can be passionately thinking out loud about one thing one moment and something totally different the next. Visionaries perceive change as something that is inevitable and welcome it. To a wife that struggles with insecurity this can be difficult, most woman hate change. How does the wife know from one minute to the next how to encourage them or what will change next. There are some wives right now that know exactly what I am talking about. If you are a parent or a spouse don’t give up. Try to encourage them in something they are passionate about. If it changes don’t be critical of them. It can be very hard for a visionary to learn to fly. But when they do learn, they often soar very high. If you’re the immature visionary though, see this for what it is, and take steps to learn to conduct yourself in a way that will help the situation, and be edifying for others. I will guarantee you that many of the most outspoken potty mouths on social media, are immature visionaries that never grew up. They feel rejected and isolated and don’t know how to edify anyone. They just continue to reject other people instead.

This world needs visionaries though. Many of the most important discoveries of all time were from mature visionaries. We need men that are willing to think, and live outside the box. Willing to go and do the things most people would be too insecure to do. But we also need mature wives that will come along side them and love them through the difficult times, and encourage them to keep going when the going gets tough. Women, if you will commit to this for the long term, you will see the fruit of it. If you could feel what your husband feels, inside his heart when you seek to encourage him in a difficult time, when it feels like everyone else has rejected them. If you could feel what he is feeling because of your encouragement, you would press even harder into it. Even the strongest and most mature visionaries need the love and encouragement of a good wife. There are many visionaries that end up staying single or end up with broken marriages. It takes a very special woman to be married to a visionary. They are very hard to find.

I can only speak for myself, but I don’t know how someone would do it without a relationship with the One that Created them, the Lord Jesus Christ. God created me for specific purposes. He wants me to excel and soar as a visionary. But I need His direction. I need resources at times. Not once has the Lord given me a vision for something, and not provided what was needed, if I was patient to wait for His timing.

Proverbs 16:9 A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

Psalm 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

I think this is one of the reasons I excel, and am so blessed in what I put my hands to. I desire His timing, and to do it for His glory. I hope these scattered thoughts will be a help to someone. I would very much like to hear edifying stories in the comments. God bless you all!

The first time I posted this I had many women that said they were visionaries and could relate.