Have you ever felt the pain of rejection? Probably so! Most of us have been rejected for something one time or another. Maybe you were selected last in the school yard for that game of football or you were rejected for that home loan you so desired. Over the last several months thousands of people in America have been left with the taste of rejection. They were told they were not wanted or needed in their employment, then they have applied for hundreds of jobs on-line to only receive no correspondence back from any potential employer.
Rejection is a hard pill to swallow and some people are never to able to fully swallow it. Some people are affected today because they were rejected by a friend, or a spouse or even the church years ago. These are the results of rejection when we take the wrong perspective. The pain will last a long time, but rejection does not mean we are not wanted, in fact it shows that we are wanted and have been chosen.
Okay, let me explain! Over the last several weeks I have experienced a form of rejection myself. I won’t go into the ins and outs (maybe one day I will), but I have discovered I am like everyone else, rejection hurts. I have not experienced much rejection in my life, but just enough to know the thoughts that go through someones mind. If they just gave me a chance they would not regret it! I can do a job! Who do they think they are! They need to look at themselves in the mirror before rejecting me! What did I do wrong! I will never make it! I’m tired of always being last! When will I get a break! Life has passed me by! I have nothing left to give!
You get it! Our emotions go through the whole range. However, I read something the other day that I have read a thousand times but it finally hit me, and changed my perspective. In Chapter 20 of the book of John, Jesus tells his disciples that the Father has sent him and because he was sent he then commissioned his disciples and said, “so I send you!’ Jesus the perfect man, the one who was God in the form of man had sent these disciples (who were rejects, losers, outcasts and very incapable) to do his work. They now had a choice, go where Jesus sent them, or stay. There was one condition though, Jesus said that if you go people will reject you, they will hate you and try to inflict pain on you. Then Jesus said, ‘but it’s not you they hate, it is me they hate and reject, therefore, don’t take offense.”
This changed my view on my own rejection. Firstly, Jesus has sent me, which means he will tell me where to go and open the doors I must walk through. When people reject me, my ability, my motives and the words I say they reject the calling of God on my life, which means they are rejecting Christ. I have discovered that a door slammed in your face is the best thing that can happen to me. Why? Because it stops me going down a road Jesus has not sent me.
Jesus Christ has sent us all, the difference between people are the ones who except this fact and the ones who reject this fact. So today I do not fear rejection. I know the path I am walking is the right path. God has sent me to walk it, yes there will be rejection, hurt and pain, but I do it because there is one who has not rejected, but instead has chosen me. I was his NO.1 draft pick, and he is the God of this universe, so reject away, because it is God you are rejecting.
How have you been able to overcome rejection? Let me know your thoughts and how you did it?