Dealing with Rejection. Head on.

Anytime I get the opportunity to hear something from Steven Furtick, I try to make the time for it. Yesterday he was doing his final bible study lesson on his book (un)qualified. I was sad, yet filled with anticipation. I listened to about 3 seconds of it before my phone decided to reboot and update causing a "blackout" hour.

I listened to it this morning. A 40 minute talked turned into 2 hours for me, along with 4 pages of notes. He always remains in a vain that I need to hear from. With all that wonderfulness, I wanted to impart a little of what he was saying to you. I can't fully express what he was saying because, well, there aren't enough days. Plus the depth I needed to hear it might not be what you need to hear.

The Blessing of Rejection

A man by the name of Jia Jiang did an amazing experiment and faced rejection head on. It's on "Ted Talks" called 100 days of rejection. The video documentary is in the link. He faces a lot of rejection and surprisingly he actually see's a lot of "yes" moments. A lot of moments in our own life that we might see as rejection may not be.

We have to start seeing situations for what they are instead of what we assume them to be. We spend so much time in our head over analyzing things. STORY TIME! I've been in touch with someone I went to school with recently and wanted to ask them a very important question. I was fearful of the rejection that I might have been projected onto me. To my surprise, after facing the fear of rejection, I experienced acceptance on a level I never have before. The reason I decided to face it head on was because the pain of regret weighed heavier than the pain of rejection. 

I don't want to live my life on 'coulda, shoulda, woulda.' I want to be able to say 'can, did, and done.' We can react differently to rejection. In retaliation. We can have a I'll show you kinda attitude. Which, that's just dumb. Because those people that you are trying to prove yourself to probably don't care about what you are doing now anyway. In retreat. We can run from it and instantly think that because we were rejected that we are worthy of nothing rejects. Also not a true statement.

OR we can react in Redemption. Taking the situation and learning a lesson. Steven gives a list of things that Rejection does. It Reveals, Refines, Redirects, and makes us Ready. Rejection isn't a bad thing. Everything in this life is a learning process. I remember when I learned that I could allow my emotions control my life or choose to find joy in my circumstances and move on. In rejection I also have a choice how I view it. 

You are the only person that can change your circumstances. On Ellen this evening this little girl, who is a talented gymnast (3 years old), was asked by Ellen if she was afraid of falling down. Her response, life changing. "No, because when you fall down you just get back up." YOUR attitude makes or breaks you. The choice is yours. You can choose to retreat, retaliate, or redeem rejection. You have to change your view of it as well. What is it revealing, redirecting us to, refining within us, what is it making us ready for. The choice is yours. Will you accept the rejection or live in the fear of regret?