I don’t have such a good track record with hiring people. Our business grew a lot and to cope with the growth, we often had to recruit new people. I come from the people industry. I know people, but for some reason, my appointments haven’t been that great. 

Yet I remember one woman. A mother of two small children who hadn’t been in the Cape for long. She was urgently looking for work. I pushed her quite a bit in the interview because I wanted to see how she did under pressure. 

She did well. She was emotionally strong. She had very good work experience. All her referees spoke highly of her, and I thought she was perfect for the job and hired her. 

And yes, she was like a fresh breeze blowing through the business. She did her job perfectly and also helped others to do their job better. Nothing was too much for her to do and even if it was sometimes very hard, there was always a smile on her face. 

I wondered if she was perfect until one day she dropped the ball. Oh, it was so bad for her, and she was in tears. I sat down with her and helped her to understand that everyone made mistakes sometimes. We are people. It happens. 

There is one Person who really has no faults. Even if the going gets tough and His life is threatened, He doesn’t choose a shortcut. He only presents the truth and if it is not acceptable to the people, they must build a bridge. 

Jesus did not sin. Jesus did not allow Himself nor His desires to get in the way of God’s plan. Jesus knew that a perfect lamb had to be sacrificed to get rid of the punishment for humanity’s sins. 

The lamb had to be spotless. No sin. No imperfection. No slip of the tongue or a temper being lost. Even when He was hungry and the devil tempted Him in the wilderness, He could not be moved. 

22He never did one thing wrong, not once said anything amiss. They called Him every name in the book and He said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set things right. 

 I have many more faults than the woman I hired. I don’t feel so good about it. If I ponder on it and compare myself to Jesus, who had no faults, then I just want to disappear. 

  But it’s times like these that we actually have to start doing something. As the children say: There’s a special on cement at Builders. Go build a bridge. And one begins to build a bridge by first of all realising that all of us will sometimes make mistakes. 

  It’s human, but then we must continue building the bridge and not stop halfway like the bridges on Cape Town’s foreshore. We must start working on the mistakes in us and we should listen to Jesus. We can trust His words. We must do as He does. Then we’ll make fewer and fewer mistakes and arrive at the picture that God has of us. Even when life is hard, we can keep doing the things God wants us to do. 

 Scripture
1 Peter 2:21-25 

Reflection
Where do you not follow Jesus?
What do you have to do to get rid of the wrong things?
Where should your words become more in line with Jesus’ words? 

Prayer
Jesus, I really want to follow You and do as You do. I’m sorry I slip up now and then. Help me hold on tighter to You. Amen.