July 1 | What He Learned

The author talks about how “quickly” ruin can happen after speculating about what ruined this field. He says it can feel like a being robbed by a thief or an armed man. Both evoke the feeling of suddenness. It’s possible the vineyard owner will wake up one day and notice just how bad the shape of his field. Maybe he is surprised to find it that way, and it feels like something has been stolen. Although he knows it takes time to reach this state, it is easy to forget that at the moment. Maybe the weed-filled vineyard was really just a symptom of a weed-filled life.

Sometimes we experience this same feeling even when our neglect was a significant factor in the ruin we see. We wake up one day, and all of a sudden notice there’s disconnect with our children, distance in our marriage, lost friendships, bad attitudes or collection letters piling up. We might feel like it happened all of a sudden, out of nowhere. But really, the slow and steady decline finally just caught up with us.

Fortunately, it’s never too late for us to get on a better path. The antidote to slow and steady neglect is quite simple—slow and steady progress. While there may be no quick fix, the first place to start is to get right with God and enlist his help. Then begin taking the daily steps toward slow and steady progress.