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How do people who have experienced
rejection react? Most commonly by withdrawing into their shell.
Suppressing their natural emotions, they hold back from reaching out
to others in case they end up getting hurt again. Does this sound
familiar? Not all withdrawal is
unwise; it is certainly important to know when to protect yourself
against further rejection. I understand entirely why a certain
veteran prayer leader reached the point where he became fed up with
people queuing up to “practise” their healing ministry on his wife,
who suffers from severe multiple sclerosis.
Eager though both he and his wife are
to welcome people with genuine anointing, they find it immensely
wearying going over the same ground with people they have no heart
connection with. Some who offer their help may feel pushed away –
but perhaps they had not paused to think matters through from the
couple’s point of view.
C.S. Lewis posed a question which
most of us ask ourselves at one time or another: “Does there have to
be so much pain in loving?” Perhaps we would do well to look at this
the other way round. Would refusing to love make things any better?
Is this how God Himself works? What if He had weighed the odds
halfway through Jesus’ mission, decided that the Romans were looking
fierce and the Pharisees were not for turning and pulled His Son off
the job?
You are reading these words today
precisely because the Father went right through with His mercy
mission. No matter how empty your heart may feel, and how much in
need of a refit, God honours those who persevere.
If you have been holed beneath the
waterline by sharp rocks on rejection’s reef, may the Lord direct
you to people and places that will aid the healing process. You may
find such repair work tedious and time-consuming, but, like a ship
refitting in dry dock it is essential not to neglect the damage that
has occurred. May He heal your hurts and rejections as you do this –
including the fear of being rejected.
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