God Is A Master at Marketing

Today’s reading: Jeremiah 9:23-24

One of the reasons I’ve never gotten along very well in the “professional” world is that I have trouble with resumes. Today’s reading reminds me of a career planning “mistake” I made back in 1989 that sort of set the tone — perhaps the entire course — of my adult life.

I was a stellar high school and college student. I was  the leader of the state and nationally acclaimed student publications at both schools; I always maintained very high grade point averages; I was always active (and rather successful) in many extra curricular activities ranging from music to student government; and I never had trouble finding teachers who would write me glowing letters of recommendation for anything I wanted to to do.

Hence, I found myself one day nominated to be part of my college’s chapter of the prestigious Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society.

“Oh wow. That’s awesome! That will look great on your resume,” a friend of mine said when I shared this news with him over lunch.

Based on that remark,  I decided to ignore the invitation. I wasn’t spiritually mature enough to decline it however. On hindsight, I wish I’d written this letter to the PTK leaders.

Greetings:

I wish to acknowledge your kindness in inviting me to be part of your organization, but I also wish to decline. I realize that your intention of honoring my school work and all related activities is well intended, but it also in conflict with my understanding of Christ. I pursue excellence in my work, not with the goal of achieving honors that I can list on my resume, but, rather, to glorify God. Frankly, I am indifferent as to whether others know of my good works and I certainly do not believe it is right for me to devote my time and resources to accepting awards for them. The ceremony by which I would be inducted into your organization would require an evening of my time and considerable amount of attention to matters such as dressing well and inviting my friends and relatives to see me accept your honor. I believe I can devote that time and energy to many other projects that would bring glory to all of God’s great kingdom rather than just to me.

It is not my intention to diminish your group or its awards. Please know that I do appreciate your invitation and do feel honored by it. I pray that my declining causes no trouble or inconvenience for your group.

Sincerely,

Don Cudd

As I say,  I did not write that letter. I just ignored the invitation. I didn’t mention it to anyone until my mother found out about it somehow several weeks after the induction ceremony.  She was disappointed, of course. She was proud of her son and wanted to see me honored. I did feel badly at having denied her that.

But, I also did not see much point in attempting to join the group belatedly as she urged.

“You’re going to wish you did that when you’re applying to work at the Daily Texan (the student newspaper of the University of Texas, where I intended to transfer in a few weeks),” she said.  “If you want to be an editor, they may look very heavily at stuff like that.”

“Well, if they don’t like me just because I didn’t join Phi Theta Kappa, then I doubt we’ll get along very well anyway,” I said. “I’ll take my chances.”

It was based on that conversation that I never tried very hard to get onto the Daily Texan staff once I arrived at UT. Again, I wasn’t mature enough to realize this, but I was practicing the Christian principle of simply trusting God to put me in the right place for his purposes. I figured, if God wanted me to be on the paper’s staff, he would make it happen in his way. I wouldn’t have to brag about all I’d done in order to get that job.

As others discovered this quirk of mine, this reluctance to accept honors and to promote them on my resume and such, I heard this phrase over and over again:

“Don, if you’re not going to toot your own horn, who will?”

Once again, I wasn’t mature enough to realize that the answer to that question is simple: God will.

Today, my resume does list a few “honors” that well intended, friendly people have bestowed upon me over the years. But I do feel awkward in mentioning them. So, to make up for that, I’ve adopted the habit in the last few years of always including a relevant Bible verse at the top of my resume. One or two people have advised me against that since, in today’s world, discussing one’s religion in a job application process (for any place other than a church, I supposed) is considered risky for both applicant and employer alike.

I figure it is likely that my Bible-centered resume has been summarily dismissed a time or two. But that doesn’t bother me. I just go back to the response I gave my mother: if someone doesn’t like me because I put scripture as a high priority in my life, then, well, we aren’t going to get along very well anyway.

“but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know me, that I am the LORD; ” (Verse 24)

Thanks be to God for always tooting my horn. May I (and we) always remember that tooting it myself only distracts me from doing more of his great work.