One day, while sitting by a brook, a shepherd noticed a steady trickle of water hitting a rock. It was only a drip, but it was constant – drop after drop after drop. The man observed something incredible: A hole had been carved out by that steady drip of water. He wondered how that could be. He concluded: If something as soft as water can carve a hole in solid rock, how much more so can the Word of God – which is hard as iron – make an indelible impression on my heart.
That marked a turning point in this indentured shepherd’s life who did not even have his own flock. Though at the age of 40 he was still illiterate, he committed himself to studying the Word of God, and went on to become one of the greatest scholars of his generation. He worked hard at what he wanted to learn. He was consistent at it and as a result people from all over came to him for answers. Sometimes we look at people who are good and know a lot about their field. They are good at what they do; they seem to naturally flow with it and we wish we could be and do the same. It is easy at these time to forget that knowledge is not transferred to our brains with a flash drive, it is learned unit by unit; that efficiency is not passed on by downloading an upgrade, it is drilled exercise by exercise. At drill last Wednesday Mark kept saying, “We learn for knowledge and drill for efficiency!” There is really no other way to develop a well of knowledge than by going through facts unit by unit. Sometime it may feel like drops of waters working away at a stone, but our shepherd rightly acquiesced with the Word of God that “Water wears away stones” (Job 14:19). As it is with skills, it is with virtue. We cannot expect to be the people that we need to be just because of one repentant prayer. It takes the daily practice and drill of making the sometimes hard but right decision with every situation we meet. Then it becomes second nature to do and think what is right. So when we see people who seem to have a good handle on either skill of virtue,we must remember that it is mostly though the daily dripping of learning for knowledge and drilling for efficiency. The great pianist Paderewski was once asked how come he could play so fluidly. He said, “Like anyone else, I practice seven hours a day! If I miss one day, I know it. If I miss two days, my friends know it. If I miss three days, the world knows it.”
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