As a Referee

A few months ago I needed referees for a job application. I thought about people I could contact on short notice to write references for me, and chose my most recent workplace in Jos. I remembered though, that during my service year there were times when each one of the proposed referees was unhappy with me because of some decisions I had made. (At a point they were at opposite ends of a decision and I was caught in the middle). Still, believing I had performed well generally under them, I called them both and asked that they write references for me, which they did promptly.

Now a person could only make such a request if they had worked well under said supervisors, or had performed poorly but were delusional enough to think they would get a job with references from them – especially on short notice.

One day two Jews went to the temple to pray¹, and each man approached God in the way he thought best.

One was honest and humble enough to admit he was a messed up sinner who needed mercy. He realized that if God were to write about him based on his prior performance he would fail woefully, so he asked for mercy instead of a good review.

The other man was confident of the reviews he’d been getting from other men, as well as the voice in the back of his head that kept telling him he was doing well, the voice of his own ego. Well, I haven’t met this man and I can’t tell if he was lying, but he was talking to God and comparing himself to other people. I haven’t written many references, but I don’t believe there’s a place for performance in comparison to others. If anything, it’s usually performance in comparison to job description. Not like comparison is a good thing, but at least he should have even compared himself to a higher standard, like maybe the high priest.

The proper thing to do is actually to compare oneself with God’s standard. There’s an expectation God has of every individual, and if you don’t measure up you aren’t doing well, no matter who you are ‘better than’.

While they prayed God listened, and as He listened He wrote references.

In the end it was the man who asked for mercy who got it, together with the best reference ever – He was declared righteous, justified.² The man who came bragging was stripped of  what he thought he had, and went home with the worst reference ever because he thought he could succeed independent of the goodness of God.

God’s goodness isn’t something He keeps to Himself; He’s ever willing to share it with as many as would come to Him banking on His mercy, knowing their own righteousness without Him is like filthy rags³, as disgusting as used sanitary pads.

You can do many ‘good deeds’ and men may call you a good person, but you aren’t really good until God says you are; and your CV is trash unless God is your referee.

You don’t have to have been perfect in the past, today if you come humbly like the man in the temple you’ll go home rejoicing in His righteousness, and you can work perfectly with Him going forward.

¹ Luke 18:10

² Luke 18:14

³ Isa 64:6