Victory!

It doesn’t happen often. In fact I can honestly say it’s the first time it’s ever happened. No, really it is. And I now have to figure out how I’m going to respond. Yesterday, like many English people all over the world, I sat down to watch England play Croatia in their first game of Euro 2021. Yes, I decided that I would watch the game rather than go for a walk! And you could argue that I made the right decision because England won! Never before in my lifetime have they done that. Never before in my lifetime have England won their first game in a European Championships. In ten tournaments they’ve never before won their first game! And, they beat Croatia, who you may remember beat them in the semi-final of the World Cup in 2018. Its’ a first! I almost didn’t believe it. I’ve got so used to them losing the first game that’s what I expected. I thought I knew what was going to happen, because it always happens. Not this time though. We won! We actually won. And now I have to decide what to do. Am I now going to be an England fan who is fully behind the team supporting them through whatever happens now? Will I trust in their ability to win? Will I criticise the manager if he picks a team I’m not convinced about? Or will I support whatever team he picks, bowing to his superior knowledge of the players and the opposition? Am I now, suddenly, simply because we won, a proper England fan? Here’s my challenge: am I only a fan because England won? Would I be more of a fan if I stuck with them when they lost? Wouldn’t I be more of a fan if I supported them with vigour irrespective of the results? Isn’t a real fan one who supports the team through the good times and the times equally? And, will I lose interest if they fail to progress in the tournament? The question I am faced with is: what kind of fan am I really? And here’s the thing - it’s got me thinking about how I am with faith. What kind of faith do I have…really? Am I a person of faith only when things seem to be going well, the way I want them to, when I get what I want from it? How is my faith when things don’t go so well? Do I talk God up when things are good and fail to do that when things are tough? It begs the question: what is my faith really? It seems to me lots of us think of faith as a set of beliefs we say we follow, and the more faith we have, the more we follow our beliefs. And, the more we can persuade ourselves of our beliefs, the stronger our faith. Faith and belief though are not the same thing. Beliefs, however right or wrong they actually are, are written down and mostly unchanging. Faith is a conviction. England might go on and win this tournament. That would be good! Victory in a major tournament. Fantastic. Faith is a conviction in another victory, in a far bigger and far better story: it is a conviction that love wins. It is a conviction that, there is a bigger and a better story than the one we see on front of us, the one with all the challenges and disappointments. It is a conviction that, in the end, God has the victory. England’s victory was fantastic. But it’s gone now. The victory that God has won is eternal. And that is better by far. And faith in that is what hold me in all things.