Behind the Lines

16/03/11 | Posted by HughB

I’ve gone through quite a few interviews in my time but recently I had to be part of a panel of interviewers for a job.

 Paperwork or Person?

I was given copies of the candidates’ applications the week before so I used a couple of evenings to read through them in preparation. By the end of those sessions I knew who I thought was right for the job.

While several of them were pretty good, one person’s application stood head and shoulders above the rest. It was well presented, answered all the questions well and ticked all the boxes. And so on the day of the interviews I went in with as open a mind as I could muster but really looking forward to meeting one of them.

Yet, when the person turned up, it was hard to believe that they were the candidate described in the application form. Yes, they had done all that they claimed but something was missing. There was just no spark. On the other hand, another person, whom I had had a few reservations about, absolutely blew me and the other interviewers away. We just had to give them the job and thanked our lucky stars that we had not sifted them out earlier in the process. There was so much more to them than we had read in their papers.

When it comes to spirituality, I wonder how many of us are just given the paperwork. I know that I spent two decades looking at the Bible in RE lessons at school and occasionally hearing it read in church when I was forced to go but I just didn’t get it. It seemed so dry, so irrelevant; just not for me. No one offered me the opportunity to meet the person behind those pages. Well, not until much later.

Now, having met with Christ, I can echo Martin Luther’s words: “The Bible is alive; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me”. And I am so glad that I didn’t sift him out earlier in the process.

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