Curriculum Vitae

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

Lately I noticed my memory slipping a little. I recall past events but when it comes to a specific date and time, I need help. Recently, someone asked me about a certain incident. I had to search my files to find the answer. That’s when I found my Curriculum Vitae.

 

I apologize about Latin again. My life is saturated with antique phrases. A curriculum vitae is a short account of one’s carrier, qualifications and accomplishments; a written overview of a person’s life. I don’t like the word “resume” because it’s French meaning “a summary.” I’m not much on French. How do you summarize a life?

 

Anyway, I found this piece of paper that laid out the course of my life. I prepared this a long ago just in case I got fired and had to apply for another job. It was a skeleton outline of sixty five years of work. No mention of being a golf caddy, a soda jerk, a one man lawn service and dog poop remover. Just a sterile listing of academic credentials and pastoral postings. Not very stimulating.

 

Today if I were to make an updated curriculum vitae it would read like this: stayed alive for seventy six years; survived forty five years of marriage with the same woman; raised four children; getting to know seven grandchildren; pastored fifty years; endured numerous personal, political, social and economic crises; and to date sound in mind and body!

 

Having said all this, I await one more entry in the list of life experiences. It’s found in Bible where Jesus tells the obedient servant: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little, more shall be given you. Enter into the joy of the Lord.”

 

C’est la vie!