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I seem to have a problem with rejection. No matter how many times I kick it out of my life, it seems to find its way back in again. It’s partly my fault, I suppose. Not only do I leave my doors unlocked, but I open them widely whenever rejection walks past. I thought about locking them. But if you lock your doors against rejection, you also lock your door from ever getting close to anyone. It’s very hard to love those outside your life, when your door is locked against them. And the minute you unlock your door, rejection is likely to sneak right in.
It’s a struggle I deal with constantly. Because I suppose I seem to have to deal with rejection a lot more than other people. While occasionally rejection might sneak into the life of another person, with me, it’s always there, ready to come in the minute I open the door to anybody. And that’s tough. Do I leave the door open and constantly have to deal with rejection? Or do I leave it closed and shut everybody out of my life for good?
I’ve decided to keep opening the door. And yes, that means rejection comes in - constantly. And not only does rejection come in, but it hurts me. It seems to know exactly what to say and what to do that will cause me the most pain. I think it’s probably because it’s hitting scars that have never fully healed over and possibly never will. It’s hard to be healed of something when you keep getting injuries in the same place.
But anyway, this is sounding a bit like a pity party and it’s certainly not meant to be one. I have to bore myself with my own pity parties, I don’t really feel like boring my readers. What it is meant to be is my thoughts on remaining hopeful in spite of rejection.
And firstly, opening my door has meant that I have opened my life to some very wonderful people, people that I would never have known if I kept my doors locked shut. I know people used to tell me that it was like I had an invisible wall when I was talking to people. I hope that that wall isn’t there anymore. I don’t think it is. And my life has been truly blessed because I managed to take that wall down.
And of course, the big issue here is that God doesn’t reject me. And I would much rather be rejected by every single person in the world (which definitely has not happened - I haven’t even been rejected by everyone I know) than be rejected by God. Because the rejection we face down here on earth is nothing compared to what it would be like if God rejected us.
And He has every reason to reject us. We’ve disobeyed him. We’ve turned our backs on him. We’re sinful and prideful.
But instead, what does he do? He sends his Son to die so that He could accept us. Jesus faced the rejection of men Himself, so that God could accept me. That’s pretty amazing. It’s not just that God doesn’t reject us when we deserve to be rejected. He makes a way for us to become acceptable to Him.
No matter what I say in my pity parties, I am not a reject. Jesus died so I didn’t have to be one. And no matter how upset I get when I am rejected - or how undeserved I think it might be - the truth is that no-one was rejected more unfairly than Christ. Furthermore, He died so that I could receive acceptance from God that I don’t deserve at all. Maybe I have received undeserved rejection. But I have also received undeserved acceptance from God. And that’s far more important.
