What Consistency Actually Looks Like: Calling, Capacity, and the Grey in the Glass

by Dave Miller

There’s a popular image floating around online that hits a nerve for anyone trying to live with intentionality. It contrasts two rows of identical glasses. The top row—labeled “what people think consistency is”—shows glasses perfectly filled to the same level. The bottom row—“what consistency actually is”—reveals something truer: glasses with different amounts of liquid in each, yet each with something in them. Same effort, different output.

This visual gives language to something I’ve observed in discipleship and leadership development over the years: we often misunderstand consistency because we misunderstand calling.

We believe consistency means performing at the same level, every day, across every season. We confuse consistency with predictability. And when we can’t measure up to that false ideal, we feel shame or failure. But the truth is, consistency isn’t about uniform output—it’s about faithful presence.

The Grey in the Glass

Let’s unpack this a little deeper. The “grey” in each glass represents something deeper than effort—it’s your foundational calling and covenant identity. It’s who you are in Christ, the unchanging center from which your daily decisions, rhythms, and work should flow.

Each glass? That’s the season of life. Sometimes you have a long runway and margin to pursue calling with visible results. Other times, you’re surviving in the wilderness, pouring what little you have from a place of hidden faithfulness. Either way, if your actions flow from identity, then both seasons are consistent.

This is the shift: consistency isn’t just about doing—it’s about doing from the right place.

Identity Before Activity

Many of us move forward by default rather than by design. We take action because we think the doing is the point. Hustle culture, even in ministry or leadership, can trick us into equating productivity with purpose.

But Scripture flips that. In the covenant model, God always begins with identity before activity:

• “You are my people” comes before “Live this way.”

  
  

• Jesus hears “This is my beloved Son” before He begins His public ministry.

  
  

• Paul roots our behavior in “walk worthy of your calling” (Ephesians 4:1), not create worth by your walking.

  
  

If we don’t know our foundational calling and values—what God has entrusted to us—we’ll be tempted to fill every glass with whatever looks productive, rather than what’s truly aligned. But when we know what we’re called to steward, we can give our energy to it with freedom, even if it looks different every day.

Covenant Responsibility in Varying Capacity

That’s why I see the “doing” in life—our tasks, rhythms, even our ministry—as the container, not the content. What matters most is that the container is filled with the right thing: faithfulness to what God has called us to do and who He has called us to be.

Your consistency might look different in seasons of grief, child-rearing, launching new work, or walking through pruning. The point is not how much is in the glass, but that it’s the same grey—the same alignment to calling, the same commitment to walk in the Spirit, the same conviction that your life is not your own.

The Mixture, Not the Metric

It’s never either/or. It’s always a mixture. Some days will overflow with productivity. Some days might feel dry, even hidden. But faithfulness shows up anyway, not to earn something, but to reflect someone.

Consistency, then, isn’t perfection. It’s not robotic repetition. It’s covenantal rhythm. It’s trusting the process of showing up with what you have, and letting the grey in the glass—the Spirit of God, the call He’s given, and the values He’s formed—fill each container to the measure grace allows that day.

Reflection Questions:

• Have I confused consistency with control?

  
  

• What is the “grey” I’m meant to pour out—what has God entrusted to me?

  
  

• How do I need to realign my rhythms with my identity?

  
  

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