Professional sportsmen and women are used to pressure. In elite performance, it comes with the territory.
They push themselves daily in training to improve their speed, agility, precision and performance, so that when their big moment arrives they can perform at the height of their powers. That tiny percentage improvement can make all the difference between success and failure.
Good coaches know just how hard to push the young men and women who they work with, to make them the best they can be.
And there’s a whole heap of other pressures too, on top of the pressure the coach brings and the athlete puts on themselves. Public expectation, and the passion of supporters. National or local pride. And that’s not to mention commercial pressures – the requirements of sponsors, club owners and sporting authorities.
All the same, some pressures come unexpectedly. Like when Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, interim president of Guinea, told the players on his national team that if they didn’t win the African Cup of Nations (AFCON, which starts on 9 January), he would expect them to reimburse every fee invested in them.
That’s a massive extra pressure for a team that has never won the tournament, and whose best performance was way back in 1976, when they finished runners-up.
Presumably the Colonel felt this motivational talk would inspire his country’s players to achieve success. But it’s a tall order, even for a side led by Liverpool star Naby Keita.
And there can only be one winner, can’t there? And for this tournament, 23 losers?
Being a follower of Jesus is different, even though it’s a challenge 24-7, and every day of the year. Discipleship is hard, and sacrifice is part of the package, but God has provided everything a believer needs.
In the Bible, Paul writes to the Church at Philippi: “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1: 4-6)
So for followers of Jesus, while we face the pressures of daily living, we can have confidence that God is at work in us, and will complete the work he has started.
When we stumble, we can know God’s forgiveness because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our past has been dealt with, our future is secure, and Jesus promises to be with us every step of the way in the present.
We’ll have to see who wins the AFCON, but following Jesus means you are already a winner – not because of anything you have done, but because of what Jesus has done for you.