How's the Job Search Going? or Hawkeye Football

I am being forced to relive season after season of the Bachelor. Gather 100 candidates for a church job and slowly eliminate them week by week until someone proposes. Currently, I am still single, but I have quite the rose collection.

Kimbra and I spent most of September back in the Midwest, interviewing for multiple positions. (We also spent time with family, abused our free babysitting privileges, and vowed to diet when we returned to Colorado.) The result: I've made it to the final episode a number of times now, but she keeps going for the other guy. I even had a run in with Season 11 where neither of the two finalists were chosen. For those of you who no idea the Bachelor made it to 11 seasons and beyond, good for you.

The feedback I have received has been unfortunately positive. It would be nice if I had some blatant area to improve. Instead, the trend has been to go with candidates who have experience with the specific area of the job. In a normal economy, employers who want education and specific experience will have to settle. In this flooded market, they can have their way. Though I'm getting really good at describing myself in five adjectives and identifying one or two weaknesses that are actually strengths in disguise.

Overall, the search has been pretty discouraging. I'm itching to jump into a staff team and get to work, but I'm stuck on the bench. And as grateful as we are to be huddled in my grandmother's basement rent-free, we would like some forward motion as a family. We spend a lot of our prayer time exploring these feelings and searching for God's voice in all of this. Perhaps with time, we will better understand God's direction for this season.

On the plus side, I am not the only University of Iowa graduate to be smelling roses.