Consistency is everything in football – and evangelism

As Christmas approaches, we have officially entered the period of the football season in which consistency is everything.

As we all know thanks to the moaning and groaning of managers every year, this time of year features a hectic schedule of matches, with the top clubs often playing an average of one game every three days or so, exacerbated further by dark and wintery conditions.

Broadcasters take great pride in showing title-defining games, relegation scraps and everything else in between. Much to my amusement, but to the disgust of my wife and mother, Sky Sports even released an advert a couple of years ago with the catchphrase, ‘Christmas is for football.’ Half the fun of Christmas is trying to work family events around seeing as much of it as possible!

One of the key lessons we learn from this period in the season is that consistency is the key to success. At the top, the teams who navigate their fixtures best during the festive period leave themselves well-placed to go on and challenge for league championships. The sheer volume of matches provides teams lower down the table with a chance to turn their fortunes around by going on a good run. At the bottom, a losing streak for can see survival hopes for struggling sides evaporate fast.

While the crunch European fixtures and rival clashes are the matches players want to play in, every team must also play the less glamorous fixtures, which while harder to be motivated for, are worth the same three points as the bigger ones.

Consistency really is essential when it comes to elite sport and is just as important in the evangelistic example we set through how we live our lives, as this is what gives our witness credibility in the eyes of those who do not believe.

While we must acknowledge that we are all sinners and will make mistakes, we must live our lives in ways that honour Jesus as consistently as possible, as otherwise they will see through our words.

When football fans support a team which shows up for the biggest matches but does not perform in less glamorous fixtures (maybe on that often infamously quoted ‘wet Tuesday night in Stoke’), they quickly see through them and come to expect them to disappoint them more often than not.

In our witness to unbelieving family and friends, we must make sure that our actions match up with what we say about what we believe, showing that Jesus truly comes first in our lives in everything.

If we tell our friends and family that we love Jesus, but live in ways which dishonour Him, then that will be seen as inconsistent, and worse, hypocrisy, quicker than we may think.

It can often feel like unbelievers in our circles are not interested in what we believe, but rest assured, they are watching us like hawks, and it is crucial that we do not give them reason to view Christians as shallow or hypocritical.

Christmas time often sees unbelievers become slightly more open to attending church events and let’s hope that God fosters this among our friends and family, pointing them to the true glory of the Incarnation.

However, we would do well to remember that what prompts them to come might be what they have seen in the way we live, seeing that it aligns with what we have told them we believe, and hopefully they will come to see that the Christian way of life is a better way of life for them too.

Let’s enjoy a feast of football during this year’s festive period, but also remembering that consistency is just as important in the way we live our lives as it is for your favourite team’s chances of success this season.