Rejected

Have you ever felt regetted? Turned down? Left out? If you are or ever were a teenage girl or not so cool young man, you know the feeling. I spent a very large part of my life feeling or thinking that I was being rejected, and to a great deal I was being rejected. That, in and of itself, is not the problem. People are rejected everyday. They are rejected from a crush, rejected from a college/school, rejected from friend, rejected from a job expectation. And, I believe that for the most part, we adjust to that part of our "human" life. What is not part of the regjection process is the carrying over of the feeling of being rejected. What happens to those feelings when we are rejected? Well I can't speak for others, but for me those feelings were buried deep into the core of my soul. The part that held onto the rejection and stewed over it, causing in the long run, the same reaction from me. When I was approached by others, my first intent was to reject or get them out of my life. Why? Well because most of my young life I had been on the receiving end of rejection. So the product of that part of my life was rejection; take and dish it out.

I even at one point in my life rejected fully Christ and God. Told people that i didnt' believe in Him and it was honestly the truth of my life. To me, Christ was no different than everyone else in my life that I didn't want to be part of my life (or - truly not knowing how to show anything but rejection). So for several years I detered people from believing, people that I know believe God placed in my life and path to get my attention. I walked willingly away from God in every aspect of my life. So what happened? God interjected!!! Literally He held and interjection of my life, and worked to get my attention in a way that I didn't expect, a total surprise. He had me blackmailed!!!! Well ok not exactly blackmailed, but that is what I call it, His counterpart calls it bribery. Either way, it worked.

In Ephesians 4:17-32 Paul talks about a "former life" to the Ephesians. How they were once hard hearted, calloused, and exculded formt eh life of God because of their ignorance (this is the first part of this section). The Paul goes onto say that "you be renewed in the spirit of yoru mind and put on a new self, with in the likenes of God has been created in righteousness and holin ess of the truth." WOW! These people were not the cream of the crop, as a matter of fact they were Gentiles, those who Christ told the disciples to tell the gospel to and those who were not part of the Jewish religion. They were part of the lowliest people in the sight of God. How did they come from that to those of a renewed spirit and life? What happened? ..... God intervened. I don't know how He does it but He has a plan for everyone and He certainly doesn't care what your plans are in the process.

Paul goes on to tell the Ephesians to set aside their anger and wrath and take on a new attitude. I believe this is what happened to me, I don't know for sure but I think it is. And even though I am far from being to the place where I can let my "new self" show completely through, I am getting there. God took all the rejection I felt in my life away, why I don't know. When, not to sure about that either. And He is replacing that rejection with a new attitude and life. Am I resistent, ABSOLUTELY! Remember, I am the one who rejected HIM not the other way around. So while I am in this growing process I am finding myself seek Him a little more some days and a little less others. I totally rejected the only person who could help me in my life and walked without Him for over 30 years. When He intervened in my life, He took what I was living with and began to tear down my walls. Now there is nothing to feel rejection through, so those who I feel would have normally rejected me are just a mission field now.

I don't know where I am going in this lack of rejection life that I am now living but I am more excited that I show to find out where it leads. What part of your life is being lived in rejection? I think that all of us have a part of "us" battered by rejection we just stuff it away instead of giving it away. I'm not sure how to end this except to say give it up to God and open your heart for a new life, a new spirit.