Online Reporter
Daimon Phiri
Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18.
That ancient Scripture hits differently in 2026, not because it has changed, but because the world around us has. The distractions competing for a man’s attention today are louder, faster, and more accessible than any generation before us has faced.
It is not that men today are inherently weaker than our fathers or grandfathers. It is that the noise is stronger, and when purpose is absent, noise always wins. A man without vision will eventually be governed by whatever feels good in the moment, because nature abhors an empty space.
When purpose is missing, pleasure takes the throne in a man’s life. Lust, comfort, entertainment, and temporary satisfaction stop being occasional indulgences and become daily masters, simply because there is nothing greater calling him forward.
I see it every week in Bulawayo. Men sitting in beerhalls at 2pm on a Tuesday as if it were Friday evening. Young men scrolling TikTok for four hours straight, yet claiming they are “too busy” to sit down and plan for their children’s school fees. Others chasing relationships that drain both their pockets and their dignity, simply to feel wanted for a night.
It is easy to call this weakness, and sometimes it is. But more often than not, it is emptiness. It is the ache of a man who wakes up without a reason to get out of bed beyond survival.
Nature hates a vacuum, and the mind will fill it
If a man does not deliberately fill his mind with vision, his mind will fill itself with noise. Without a mission to chase, lust becomes a counterfeit god that promises intimacy but delivers isolation.
Without a future to build, comfort becomes a trap that keeps a man soft and unprepared.
Without a reality worth facing, entertainment becomes an escape hatch from responsibility. A young man in Nkulumane told me recently, “Brother, I know porn is destroying me. But after work
I’m tired and lonely. What else is there?” That question, “what else,” is the heart of the crisis.
When a man has no vision, every temporary thing starts to look like an answer. Every notification feels important. Every new trend feels urgent. Every pleasure feels necessary, because there is no bigger picture to measure it against.
Vision changes the rules of a man’s life
But when a man discovers purpose, discipline ceases to be a burden and becomes a requirement.
Vision reorders priorities without anyone having to shout at you, because you now know what you are protecting.
Vision changes how a man thinks. He stops asking, “What feels good right now?” and starts asking, “What will help me and my family five years from now?” That one question kills a thousand bad decisions before they are made.
Vision changes how a man speaks. There is less complaining about the economy, the government, and other people, and more planning about what he can control today. Vision changes how a man spends, because he understands that destiny is too expensive to trade for data bundles, beer, or quick thrills.
Vision changes how a man lives. He wakes up early not because a boss is watching, but because something is waiting for him. A man with direction knows that his calling has a price tag, and that price is usually paid by saying “no” to things that feel good today but destroy him tomorrow.
Many men are not weak; they are visionless
Let us be honest with ourselves as men. Many of us are not failing because we lack strength or intelligence. We are failing because we are living without a target, and a man without a target will shoot at anything and miss everything.
He will chase every woman because he has no wife-purpose and no understanding of covenant. He will chase every trend because he has no life-purpose to anchor him. He will chase every shortcut because he has no long road mapped in his heart.
I watched women in one of our apostolic congregations last week who gather at shrines at 10am on weekdays. They are not there because they have nothing to do. They are there because they are desperate for direction for their families. Men must also find their prayer ground.
Not to escape work, but to receive vision for work. Not to avoid responsibility, but to gain the wisdom to carry it well. A man who does not pray for direction will eventually be directed by algorithms, alcohol, and other people’s opinions.
Three questions to find your vision again.
If you feel controlled by pleasure right now, if you feel stuck in cycles you hate, then you must pause and ask better questions. The first question is: What problem was I born to solve? Vision always starts with service, not status, and God rarely gives a man a vision that is only about himself.
The second question is: What will I regret at 60 if I keep doing what I am doing at 30? Let your future self-judge your present choices. If the man you want to become would be ashamed of today’s habits, then today’s habits must change.
The third question is, who am I becoming? Habits reveal vision more accurately than speeches do. If your daily routine does not match the man you claim to be, then your vision is a lie you are telling yourself.
Write the answers down. Habakkuk 2:2 says, “Write the vision and make it plain.” A vision you cannot write; you cannot run with. A vision you cannot articulate; you cannot defend when distraction comes knocking.
The cost of distraction in our homes and community
Distraction is not a private sin. It has public consequences. When fathers are absent because they are absent-minded, children grow up looking for direction in the wrong places.
When husbands are present physically but mentally checked out on their phones, marriages become cold and transactional.
When young men trade their twenties for endless scrolling and substances, we lose engineers, teachers, farmers, and fathers before they ever begin. Bulawayo does not have a shortage of potential. It has a shortage of directed potential.
We see it in the economy too. Too many talented men can fix cars, build houses, and start businesses, but they never do because they are waiting for motivation instead of walking in vision. Motivation fades. Vision sustains.
A final word to the man reading this
Friend, you were not created to be entertained to death. You were created to build, to protect, to provide, and to lead. That does not mean you will never rest or laugh. It means your rest will have a purpose, and your joy will have a foundation.
May your vision become so clear that every distraction loses its power over your life in Jesus’ Name. May the beer halls lose their appeal, the porn tabs lose their power, and the gossip groups lose their grip, because you have finally seen something greater.
Proverbs 29:18 is both a warning and a promise. Without vision, people perish. But with vision, people build. Families build. Communities build. Nations build.
Bulawayo does not need more strong men who are flexing in the gym but broke in purpose. It needs more directed men. Men who know why they wake up. Men whose “no” to distraction is louder than the world’s constant “yes” to pleasure.
Because destiny is too expensive to trade for temporary pleasure. And you, brother, are too valuable to waste on things that will not matter in 10 years.
