Artist: Maryam Tabatabaei


Rejection stings.

I was thinking today about how sometimes you will choose something that does not choose you in return. Hence the rejection.

For instance, I like milk but milk does not like me – I’m lactose intolerant.
I like popcorn, but popcorn does not like me – upsets my stomach.

It gets deeper.

There have been two relationships that I would have preferred to keep, but the guys did not prefer to keep me. The rejection stings all the more when you were promised marriage and end up still single – no wedding bells of joy. Only the sting of rejection.

Or, you could be happily married but the rejection is on your job or career field. You choose a certain field but it seems like you cannot get any traction in it. You are repeatedly rejected – interview after interview.

Or, you could be rejected by your peers. And there are many aspects to this rejection.

But, can I tell you this one thing. Rejection does not define you.

Sometimes we get down on ourselves because we don’t fit into the mold that we desire, or we don’t get to live out the dreams that we desire. Our lives don’t pan out the way that we planned since we were 10 years old etc etc.

People are indeed entitled to their own views and sometimes, in exercising their free will, rejection comes. Things do not always work out the way that we would like. But, we have to accept the rejection.

I know that seems a strange statement. But you would not believe the times that I have known of a rejection but refused mentally, emotionally and/or physically to accept it. I kept trying to work my way around the brick wall of rejection. But, I never got around it until I accepted it. Once I accepted the rejection, then I could move forward. Simple enough, right?

The key is not to internalize the rejection. I will say it again – rejection does not define you. We have to keep the proper perspective. In exercising their freewill, people who walked among the same streets and lived during the same time as the Son of God, rejected Him. They did not believe Who He said He was. Some of them could not accept Him because He did not come in the package in which they were expecting. But, it did not stop Him from being Who He was then and is now. He is the Son of God – His name is Jesus. It does not matter that some accepted him when things were good and then when the road got tough, rejected this same Jesus. Rejecting Him does not stop Him from being who He is.

The same is true with us. Rejection does not define us neither does it keep us from being who we are.

So, if you are feeling rejected today – take heart. God does not and has not rejected you. Rejection does not define you. If the Son of God can be rejected, don’t be surprised if you are rejected. Take your hurt to the Lord, and move forward with your life.