Months passed by and I did not receive a phone call nor email. I made plans to continue to focus on my goals for the upcoming school year. I worked as if I was returning to my current assignment. My summer began, and I was swept away physically and mentally by the vacations and events I had planned months in advance.
Midway through the summer, while out of town, I received a voice message that said:
"Hi Kim! This is [so and so] and I'm calling because I'm looking at the resumes on my desk and yours stood out to me. I want to call you in for an interview, if you're still interested in the position!"
My mouth ajar, I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it with awe. My resume stood out? Could this be a joke? Did a lot of other people apply? I was certain mine would get lost in the shuffle of more qualified applicants. Later that night, I heard a guy speaking to a group of high school kids and his words of affirmation to them were "Whatever the world uses to disqualify you is the very thing God uses to qualify you!" His words might have never reached any of the 70 kids in that room, those words were just for me. I reflected on them and used my meditation on those words to calm my fears.
A week later, while trying to prepare for the interview, I heard a calm in my Spirit say to "Just trust me"...don't practice. So on the way to the interview, I prayed "Lord, help me to understand that if I am not chosen, it is because of your purpose IN me, not because i'm being rejected personally. Give me the authentic words to say when responding to each question. Amen." Feeling as if I probably needed to pray more, I knew that was all I could pray and I just silently rode to the interview.
Round 1:
Three people sat in front of me with page of questions. One of the three knew me personally because I had done some presentations in front of them in the previous 16 months. But as the questions came, I paused and tried to reflect on my experiences as a Program Coordinator for math at my former district and my last 2 years serving the campuses I had been assigned to. 45 minutes later, I was done and relieved. It was over!!
A call came the following day (less than 24 hrs later) and the words came thorough the phone:
"Kim, we absolutely loved you in your interview. You seem to embody all that we are looking for and you had us all in your corner when you said ...." I thanked her and she went on to say, "A candidate came in after you and we decided to go with her because she already had prior Coordinator experience and had been through a curriculum audit. But we thank you for your time...blah blah blah."
It WAS over. I didn't feel an ounce of remorse or regret. I had stepped out on faith and it was proven that it wasn't my season. I let my loved ones know and was content to finish my summer without any pressure.
Round 2:
The following morning, I got a call from the same number that had called me only 17 hours earlier.
"Kim, we could not stop talking about and thinking about you and your interview. We are not content to choose this other candidate without getting more objective vantage points. We want to reinstate you into the interview process and move you to round 2."
Wait, what!!!??? What had just happened? Had God put my name in their minds and changed their hearts? Was he prolonging this faith test? Was it in His purpose after all? There was no time for doubting, I had come this far.
Sunday night, I received a call from my Associate Superintendent, who coincidentally knew me from my previous campus assignment interactions. An hour later, we were done with questions that were more probing and yet again I felt I hadn't given any conventional/traditional answers...only authentic responses based on real experiences.
Round 3:
A call came the following day telling me that I was being moved to round 3 and would be interviewed by a panel of district elementary teachers. At this point, I was exhausted mentally. Over a week had gone by and I just wanted the process to end. I had never been through such a rigorous process of hiring. Up until this point, every hire has been because I've been asked to take a position so interviewing wasn't involved in the process.
Now I sat in front of a Kinder, 3rd and 5th grade teacher,. Two other district personnel sat on the panel taking notes and I sat down at one end of the table what seemed like miles from everyone else. One of the three teachers, again was from a campus I had been assigned to previously and although the face was a comfortable place to rest my attention, the questions from their mouths were the most intense I had ever encountered.
I literally had sweat running down my back for the next 90 minutes as they went around the table 5 times each of them rattling off situation and question after question/scenario. I must have prayed each one of them read their question, because I knew that I had to be authentic and reflect on my previous experiences if I wanted to leave there feeling any type of success. I could not be fake. When it was all over, I got a call the next day and the job was extended to me!
The journey that began with faith, traversed through doubt and fear, yet had ended with purpose! God revealed to me that His favor and faithfulness was the only factors in this process. All of this conspired to show me that He would be the only factor that would carry me through this new season. That leaning and trusting Him would be essential if I were to desire any success. And that's the fling that has taken my love affair with my Savior into a deeper Lordship with Him. I can openly speak of His pursuing love and kindness towards me and it cements my faith that He will do the same in any other areas of my life that He has purposed for me!
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