Résumés win and lose you the opportunity to make a first impression. A good résumé will win you the chance to have a first conversation. It impresses a potential employer with your accolades, opening the door to a potential job offer.
But if it fails to impress, you don't even get a chance. If you're past work wasn't good enough, it goes straight to the trash. If you're past efforts were half-hearted and the employer finds out, you won't even be considered.
There are a lot of tricks, of course, to writing a good résumé: use active words, keep it to a single page, don't make any grammar mistakes, use good design. Résumé-writing requires the craftsmanship of an artist and the precision of a surgeon. It requires uniquely arranging and choosing the most impressive words and carefully placing those words so that it maximizes potential impact.
Your ability to write the perfect résumé determines whether or not the interviewer thinks you'll be worth his time. It's your one shot to prove you are worth it.
Because of all of this, résumé building can be exhausting, frustrating, and never-ending. Your résumé can always sound more impressive. It can be passed over for a simple mistake. And there's always somebody that has a list of accolades that put yours to shame.
As Christians, a lot of us have been spending years working on our church-going résumé. We can fill it with impressive active verbs: grew, led, ministered, mentored, saved. We can impress you because we are spiritual but not too spiritual, we are good but we won't make you feel bad for not being as good, and we can even play acoustic guitar.
@@As Christians many of us have spent our lives building a résumé that doesn't matter and ignoring the one that does.@@ Jesus doesn't care what's on your résumé. What's missing doesn't change what he thinks of you. What's present doesn't make him think more of you. Your good works and good behavior isn't a job application for the Kingdom of God.
Your résumé of works is worthless, Jesus has adopted you into the family and it has nothing to do with your efforts.
I imagine Paul writing to the Philippians about his own résumé:
"I know I'm good. But the question is do they know that I'm good?
Where do we start - I've been in the business as long as I remember. I grew up learning the family trade, I was in the tribe of Benjamin. I wasn't just a Hebrew, I was a darn good one.
I had a track record of outstanding obedience. I was one of the best. I'd challenge you to try to find one fault in my obedience - you won't. And not only that but I was one of the most ardent evangelists for my cause."
And then Paul writes, "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ."
Your résumé is garbage. @@Jesus résumé determines your standing before God, not yours.@@ The works of Jesus have been given to you to make you righteous. His obedience is what determines your worth, not your own.