As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
I Peter 2:4-5
Rejection is not a one-time event for an average human being. We are rejected more times than we think we know, rejection is often the deep foundation on which our defensiveness and dishonesty are built on.
Rejected by the teacher who favoured another student in school. Rejected by the university you hoped to get in. Rejected by the boy who you thought would choose you. Rejected in the job interview. Rejected by a friend who could not see past your failure. Rejected by someone you looked up to.
Rejected even before you could try.
Some of it, or all of it, or many more of it could be relevant experience for many of us.
Rejection could be the base colour on the art of our lives, the theme of our life stories or the scripts to our life events, the motivation for all our independencies.
The venom of rejection infects our beings and transforms us into rejects who are suspicious of acceptance. We are more reinforced to live as rejects- surprised by acceptance.
Our very anticipation to be rejected by something or someone points us to how we crave acceptance. The constant need to keep up, to maintain or prove oneself over and over again has its roots in our need to be accepted.
The irony of the statements we tell ourselves and to others that “it doesn’t really bother us what others think of us” is the persistent guard we need to nullify the ache and the need for acceptance. It is easier to accept rejection when it is anticipated perhaps, but the ache still lingers down the empty halls of our lives. We would either make it up to someone who rejects us or constantly strive for success to be the revenge that will make our rejecters regret.
We need a checklist of things or people who will affirm our self-worth. Anything or anyone person short on that list would orchestrate harmonies of doubts, insecurities, worth and purpose to life. When the chords of our souls are struck by a rejection, it exposes the lies we believe, the infirmities in our defences and the fears of being an imposter.
There are several established laws of nature, one among them is rejection is inevitable in life.
What does this do to our faith? We are suspicious of the word Grace and the giver of Grace.
What should rejection mean to a Gospel believer?
The only shockproof guard that can protect us in the collision with rejections is the truth of our acceptance we have in the creator of the Universe. The unconditional, incomprehensible, unwavering acceptance of a God, who fully knows us to the point of our cells, fears, dark desires and secrets; yet, makes the informed choice of loving us and accepting us.
He signed the papers of our adoption fully aware of the frail frame of our dark beings. It was no ink that he signed with, it was with his blood and death. In a world of rejections, there is this magnanimous acceptance that overshadows and making our rejections Lilliputian.
Christ does not minimize or dismiss the pain of our rejection. He entered this world of rejection, experienced colossal rejection beginning with his own family. He befriended rejection, submitted to its assault and emptied the venomous cup of global rejection. He fully knows the flavour, the sting and the stench of rejection. He willingly enters our pain with deep understanding, weeps more tears, shares our headphones and listens to our lament playlist. He extends his friendship of infinite acceptance.
What Lilliputian sized rejection overthrow a Gulliver sized acceptance?
To the very rejections that define our worth, to the narratives of rejections we rehearse in our heads, he meets us with truths that are the only definition of our worth, meaning and purpose.
Should that which/who reject us define us; when we can embrace the only acceptance that matters and the acceptance that empowers and changes us?
Some rejections seem irredeemable given its length and breadth. The persistent agony can gnaw us from within. What is more persistent than pain of rejection is the hand of God steering our stories of rejections towards redemption.
No! The present rejection is not the end or climax of our stories, God is the anti-climax of our stories, and redemption is the plot twist to a surprise ending. Rejection if anything is the very stage that displays grace and redemption like no other. His acceptance supersedes every other rejection. No rejections can be bigger than God’s sovereign redemption and reclamation of us. The Gospel nullifies the power a rejection can have and redeems it for His Glory.
Retelling our narratives would mean for us to re-remember, rehearse and be deliberately mindful of the Gospel truth of acceptance. It is a hard walk to practice living as those accepted by God, undoing the cripple rejection has caused, but it doesn’t have to a lone walk!
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”(I Peter 2:4-5)
He Aletheia 