Like many people, I frequently go through periods of my life when I become depressed over the rejection I receive from others.  It doesn’t’ matter if the rejection is small or devastating.  Besides, the small rejections end up becoming devastating by the time I get through growing them anyway.

But like you know, there are times when rejections from others seem to come in a long series that seem to never end.  Normally I do not let rejections get the best of me, but this time the consistent rejections caused me to start feeling sorry for myself.  In fact, I became so depressed that it began effecting my interaction with others.  I began asking questions like “Why are people so stupid?” “How can they treat me this way?” and “Don’t they see how stupid they are?”  In fact, every spare moment I got throughout the day, I would rehash over and over the rejection I felt, which kept feeding that emotion and allowing it to grow.  But instead of solving the problem, the emotional grief turned into physical pain.

One day I was tired of feeling all the pain. I looked back and said to myself: “I have stressed myself over this situation for 3 or 4 days now.  Think of all the time and energy I have put into this.  What has it accomplished?  Absolutely nothing!  Rather than spending hours making myself crazy with all this stuff, I could have written several articles to help others or spent time in prayer with God."  But instead, I chose to waste my time worrying about “why” people rejected me.  I then asked myself, “Does it really matter?”  What if I really knew the reason people rejected me? Would that make a difference in the outcome of the situation? I don’t think so.

It was at this time that I finally went to God in prayer. I first asked Him to forgive me of my sins in Jesus’ name.  Then I asked Him to help me remove this behavior from my life. God replied: “Not yet. You still have a lesson to learn first.”  I accepted His answer and did not question Him further. I was so happy that God even cared enough to respond to me. He certainly didn’t have to-- but He chose to.  That is just one demonstration of His love and I felt secure in God’s response.

The next day I talked with a Christian brother who also experienced rejection from people in his life.  We talked for several hours and it was evident I had a problem in my personality that needed changed.  My Christian brother helped me to see how wrong I was in my thinking and the behavior I had shown in the past that could have an effect on why some people reject me.  It was evident the Holy Spirit was working through my Christian brother and bringing the reality of the situation to light so it could be removed from my life.

After our conversation I went to the kitchen to wash the dishes.  Suddenly the windows in the house began to shake and rattle from a freak wind storm. I could hear the wind coming in the distance and it had the sound of a freight train. I ran to turn on the weather channel on television to find out if a tornado was headed toward our area.  At the time, the only information the weather channel reported were wind gusts of up to 58 miles per hour.

The wind continued for several hours but I didn’t hear any windows breaking or trees snapping.  Around 4:00 am I decided to go to bed. As I lay in my bed listening to the fierce sound of the wind I began thinking about the people who lived in Florida during the 2004 series of hurricanes.  In that year, they had suffered through the horror of living through four hurricanes within a three-week period.  Every hurricane destroyed billions of dollars worth of property as well as taking several lives.  Now here I was listening to winds of only 60 miles per hour.  How could those people in Florida have endured winds of 120 miles per hour?  It had to be a frightening experience.  Just listening to the power of the wind is scary enough.  When you add on the factor that you are powerless and there is nothing you can do about it – the experience becomes even more frightening.

As the wind continued to increase around me I began to hear limbs breaking off trees. I also heard my house making cracking sounds when large gusts of wind hit the side of it.  At one point the wind was so fierce that I became frightened for my life and began crying out to God and said: “Please protect me God. Please. I beg you to please protect me.”  When I reached a stage in my prayer where I felt totally powerless and God was the only one that could control the situation He intervened.  All of a sudden (as quickly as the wind came) the wind stopped.

Within an instant not only had the wind stopped but everything became totally silent. There was absolutely no sound – only quiet peace. I was shocked and even took the time to get up from my bed and look out the window. Sure enough, not even a leaf was moving on a tree. I knew then I was in the presence of the Lord and it was a humbling experience.

God then began to talk to me.  He reminded me of the time when He was in the boat with His disciples.  He had fell asleep in the boat and a big storm came up.  The boat began tossing to and fro on the water.  The disciples became so scared that the boat was going to capsize that they started looking for Jesus.  They found Him asleep on the boat.  The disciples woke Jesus up to tell Him about the storm.  “And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” (Matthew, Chapter 8, Verse 26)

God pointed out to me the fact that He was asleep in the boat. I said, “But Jesus, how could you sleep through high turbulent winds that were rocking the boat you were on to and fro?  Why did the disciples have to wake you up to tell you about it?” God reminded me that He knows all things. He was fully aware of the condition of the weather.  The point I was missing is that Jesus WAITED for the disciples to come to Him. He did not go to the disciples.  And, He only responded when the disciples cried out for help and was dependent upon Him.

As I was still digesting this experience in my mind, God then asked me another question.  He said: “You ask yourself why some people reject you.  How many people have rejected me? Don’t you think I have felt the same pain you have felt but with a greater intensity?” God continued by saying: “You ask yourself how people can be so stupid and why they treat you the way they do. Do you not think I have not experienced the same pain you have felt but with a greater intensity?”  This realization humbled me to tears.

Of course God has experienced pain, hurt and rejection.  And He never deserved one single moment of it.  I am a sinner living in a sinner’s body.  Who am I to feel rejected and hurt?  God accepts me, so nothing else matters.  In fact, in my life I have also rejected God and followed my own way on many occasions. So I was guilty of doing the same thing to God that people were doing to me.  Why was I complaining?  There was nothing a human being could do to me that would even remotely compare to the rejection God has endured at the hands of His creation. He even hung on a cross for three-hours in excruciating pain – but even then... He even forgave the people who took His life. “Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.” Luke, Chapter 23, Verse 34.)

The AV 1611 King James Bible

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