I hate rejection. Who doesn’t? Maybe some of us are more sensitive to it than others. As I am. And I have been rejected so many times in my life it is a wonder I have made it through it all. But I have. Because of God alone. And I have been rejected by all sorts of people in all sorts of situations for all sorts of reasons all with the same resulting feeling devastated by it all. But some rejection stands out more than other rejection. Like the time I was rejected by a stripper! And though there is something humorous in this true story, there is also something tragic. Most of all, there is truth for all of us to understand.
Decades ago, while in college, I went on a family vacation to Colorado. Traveling by bus at one point to get to our destination, my Mom asked two men I had been extremely attracted to what they did for work. They gladly replied. They were strippers. On their way to a big job being paid a big chunk of money to strip at a resort destination.
I did not believe in God at the time. And I didn’t hesitate to spend the entire family vacation getting drunk when the opportunity arose and chasing after those strippers one in particular. But I was absolutely heartbroken when the stripper I pursued stood me up and made clear he had not an ounce of interest in me. Probably because despite my sinfulness I had my limits and would not give him everything he likely wanted. Enough said.
I then turned to pursue the other stripper who was kind to me but also made clear I wasn’t of interest to him. Double rejection by two professional strippers. Wow.
The humor? Chasing strippers on a family vacation. Mind you my family also did not believe in God and did not see the sin in all this. The tragedy? My desperation to be loved, approved of, and accepted – by anyone at all even strippers. And how I felt so crushed and like my life was pretty much over when rejected.
The truth? When we turn from our sins, believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and in His death and resurrection, turning to God and His ways, we are forgiven, promised a forever relationship with God, and the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. The love, lordship, fellowship, friendship, acceptance, worth, value, significance, purpose, comfort, compassion, kindness, goodness, intimacy, wisdom, mercy, provision, grace, peace, hope, joy, strength, wondrousness, and splendor we find in Jesus and in a forever relationship with Him, this is greater and more wonderful and rewarding and satisfying than anything or anyone we can have and be with on this earth. We can face all the rejection in the world and still be perfectly fine in and through Jesus and a relationship with Him.
I still get rejected. And rejection still hurts. But not the same way it used to. Because today my first love, the one I live for, the one to whom I am totally devoted, the one who loves me more than imagination, the one I love beyond words, is Jesus.
He is my first and forever love. Is He yours?
Believing in Him and living for Him and following Him is the only way to heaven. But this is not all. Jesus and a relationship with Him now and forever in heaven, this is the greatest gift and blessing and hope we can have as human beings.
Believe in Jesus as Lord. Turn to Jesus as Lord. Live for Jesus as Lord. Enjoy Jesus and intimacy with Him now and forevermore, AMEN!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 NKJV
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!…Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:1-2 NKJV
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6 NKJV