Consistency
Even those who don’t follow baseball know the name Willie Mays. With a career batting average over .300 and twenty-four appearances in the All-Star game – not to mention his twelve consecutive Golden Glove awards – Mays was the consummate baseball professional.
When asked about his perspective on being one of the greatest to ever play the game, Mays had this to say:
“It isn’t hard to be good from time to time; what’s tough is being good every day.”
What Mays is talking about, of course, is consistency. Anyone can pull off the occasional performance; champions are those who do it day in and day out. It’s what sets them apart. It has nothing to do with your level of talent, and everything to do with how you apply that talent – your God-given gifts and abilities – on a daily basis.
In other words: How consistent are you?
One of foundations of the Christian faith is what theologians call the “immutability” of God. In layman’s terms, it simply means that God is consistent – the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Or, as He declared in Malachi 3:6: “I, the Lord, do not change.”
Of course, God’s immutability is inseparably linked to His perfection – something none of us could claim. Our challenge lies in identifying those areas in our lives that need to change, versus those that demand consistency.
It’s consistently doing the right things over a prolonged period of time that leads to success in life – no matter what it is we’re attempting.
Stop and think about it: It’s what kids want most from their parents – a consistent, godly approach to raising them that provides the love, security and stability they crave. It’s what employers desire most from their employees – a consistent “best effort” focus on their work. It’s what coaches long for in their players – the same consistent performance, practice after practice and game after game. The list goes on and on.
Most of us know people who are extremely talented, but inconsistent in the stewardship of those gifts. Likewise, we know people with fewer skills who time and again outperform those with more ability. The difference? Consistency.
In that regard, Willie Mays had it right: Being good every once in a while? No big deal. Being consistently good, day in and day out? A very big deal.
