Sean Johnson - Intentionally - The Education of Sean Johnson

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.
The unreasonable man insists on adapting the world to himself.
Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw

Throughout time there have been men who have shaken the world from its foundations.

Men who have been thrown into the same world as everyone else, yet see it in a different way.

Where others strive to make it through another day, these men can’t avoid throwing themselves into what appears, at least to them, to be an epic drama.

Where others spend their times watching what everyone else is doing, these men are busy making up their own stories.

They’re called dreamers. They’re called arrogant. They’re called crazy.

And yet they seem to succeed in the face of obstacles. They seem to create amazing, beautiful things through the sheer force of their will.

People are drawn to them. They might not be the most attractive men in the room - they don’t have to be. They have a certain magnetism about them that compels people to come closer.

They are narcissistic to be sure. They battle pride and ego their entire lives. They wrestle with their intense fire and confidence, feeling at the same time thankful and sorry that they’ve been given the gift.

But try as they might, they can’t get rid of it. Everything they take on they must transform. They have an insatiable desire to take what is normal and mediocre and turn it on it’s head, rip it apart, and make it breathtaking.

They take risks, sometimes crazy risks. They are willing to throw everything into some endeavor, knowing full well that the likelihood of success is dismal. When their project or enterprise comes crashing down around them, they don’t call it failure. They don’t even think of it as failure. They simply get up and try again. And again. And again.

These are the men you read about in history books. These are the men you hear about who start tiny companies in their dorm rooms and become billionaires by age 30. These are the men who change the world.

Men of such power and magnitude don’t turn their passion off when they leave the office or get off the stage or finish writing. They can’t turn it off. It translates into every facet of their lives.

These men believe, above all, in the power of love. They can kill themselves all week, drain themselves in their work. And at the end of the day they can go home and love with the same passion and fire.

These men are chalked up as the supreme egoists. But surprisingly, they don’t do these things for themselves. They possess a haunting feeling that they’re supposed to be doing these great things, moving these mountains, for someone else.

They need a muse.

Every single one of them.

They need to know that through it all, there’s someone behind them.

They need to know that when they succeed someone will be there to share in their excitement.

They need to know that when they fall on their face they can come home at the end of the day and feel as though all is right in the world.

Without a muse they feel incomplete. Their fire wanes. They don’t seem to have the same spring in their step, the same force of personality. They seem…normal.

The church has been terrific at getting rid of these men. It’s true, these men are constantly struggling to control their confidence, thinking there is something wrong with them. And self-pride is wrong.

But these men can’t control it. They can’t fully convince themselves that their gift is wrong.

Because it’s not. It’s a gift. God put their fire inside of them. They are meant to accomplish great things, and to draw people near them.

But they need a muse.

The problem with these men is that they are still a product of the world, and the world tells them that the world is all they need. So they look for their muse in the love of a woman, or two women, or a hundred women.

But it’s not enough. No woman can provide them with the kind of support that they consistently need. It’s too much pressure to place on the woman - eventually they fail the man. And the man is devastated.

And they beat themselves up about it. In the rest of their lives, the world failure is not in their lexicon. But when their relationship falters, when their muse is ripped away from them, they feel incomplete. They no longer feel as though they can move mountains.

God made these men with a fire that can’t be contained. The church condemns them for it. They look for their muse in the world. They get hurt.

What if the church realized that these men were created that way on purpose, to fulfill a certain purpose? What if the church put their time and energy into helping these men realize who their true muse is? What if the church helped them discover that they are indeed supposed to be moving mountains for someone else? And what if the church made them realize that this muse will be there for them, won’t let them down, desires above anything to have the kind of passionate relationship they feel designed for?

The apostles had that fire. And they had their muse. Imagine how different the world would be if our men today believed in their muse the way the apostles did?