Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Rejection (11/15/04)
TITLE: If We Just Believed By Taylor Kent 11/22/04 |
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT SEND ARTICLE TO A FRIEND |
What a chilling word. It touches the deep seated fear that resides in each of us. The fear that tells us we are not smart enough, not pretty or handsome enough, and overall not good enough. The fear that tells us, if the people around us knew who we really were they would reject us.
I grew up in a home where love came at a price. That price when I was young centered around behavior and achievement. In my teen years, that price was more about becoming the person my parent's, specifically, my father wanted me to be. So when I conformed to that image, I was rewarded with the love and affection I so desperately craved, and when I didn't my parent's rejected me.
My parent's, exploiting my own deep seated fear of rejection, showed me that the rules were clear. Be what other's want me to be and they will not only like me, but they will love me.
And that knowledge affected my friendships and love relationships, my choices concerning my future – jobs and career and dreams and marriage, my choices about smoking and drugs and drinking, and pretty much every other aspect of my life.
But to be fair, my parent's were simply conforming to the world in which they lived, and they were teaching me the way things work.
Unfortunately, the same messages my parents taught me are being forced feed to all of us all of the time by TV, radio, movies, magazines, newspapers, Internet sites, and even by the Sunday morning sermons we hear every week.. Those messages say if we don't look a particular way or act in an appropriately way or have the right things, people will reject us. The really sad part is that almost everyone buys into this lie.
Amazingly, there is one person who doesn't buy into those lies. Who will not reject us. Who loves us no matter how we look or no matter what we do or no matter whether we own the right stuff or not. That person is Jesus. And Jesus can heal the pain of rejection and His perfect love will drive out all our fears, especially our fear of rejection, if we just trust Him.
Just think...
What could the world be like if we really believed that Jesus loves us as we look, as we act, and no matter what we have?
What could the world be like if at the core of being was the loving acceptance of Jesus rather than an all consuming fear of rejection?
What could the world be like if we embraced our place in God's family and truly lived out the love He is put inside us?
What could the world be like if we just believed?