Credit Where Credit Is Due

We all want to be somebody – to be recognized in our field, whatever it may be. We want to be important, to be acknowledged. We want to be worth something. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose. We want people to notice us. I suppose that’s why some children get in trouble at school. Because they are neglected at home they may often do whatever it takes to get noticed in the classroom, even if for misbehavior. If we feel overlooked, we may claim more for our selves than is actually true. We may brag and boast. We are simply looking for credit where credit is due.

The word credit is related to the word credential. You have to have credentials these days in order to get recognition, in order to get a job, in order to be promoted. We may even pad the resume to make it look a little better than it is. It’s amazing how often some academic, or civil employee, is discovered to have embellished his or her curriculum vita. They are only looking for credit.

On the other hand, I am reminded of an old saying, “You can get a lot done if you don’t mind who gets the credit.” Makes me think that self-promotion gets in the way of actual accomplishment.

In the letters of Paul to the churches of the New Testament era, he often was placed in the position of defending his right to teach. His credentials were called into question on more than one occasion. In a kind of parody of resume embellishment, Paul launches into long list of his credentials:

“It’s crazy to talk this way,” he writes, “but I started and I’m going to finish. I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather. . . If I have to ‘brag’ about myself, I’ll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus (2 Cor. 11:23-33, The Message, Eugene Peterson).”

Paul’s list of credentials sounds strange to the modern ear. If we are thinking that a resume is a list of our skills, education and accomplishments, then we are caught off guard by Paul’s litany of sufferings and hardships. Paul’s curriculum vita makes a mockery of self-promotion. “If I must boast,” he writes, “let me boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:31)

I remember a woman in one of my former churches who used to joke about all the chickens she had cooked for church suppers. She figured she’d have stars in her heavenly crown for every one of those chickens. Maybe she will, but those crowns are all going to be cast at the feet of the Lamb on the throne, so the vision of Revelation tells us (Rev. 4:10). Perhaps the old saying takes on a different tone for the one who follows Jesus – “You can get a lot done, if you don’t mind that Jesus gets the credit.”