When Rejection Looks Like Victory

“Too many Christians have a commitment of convenience.  They’ll stay faithful as long as it’s safe and doesn’t involve risk, rejection, or criticism.  Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, they check to see which way their friends are going.”  ~  Charles Stanley

Before I started reading my Bible, you know, before I got seeded deep, mounted in the truth of who God is…back when I used to dress for church on the outside, but felt condemned by the world on the inside…

I feared losing my identity, because my identity wasn’t in Christ.

And maybe you can relate?  That play-it-safe, act good on Sundays, smile when you need to, disillusionment the other days of the week?

And have you ever just started out bravely, but then somewhere in the journey, you found the closest people to you were persecuting, rejecting, or criticizing you, until you want to crawl back into your cave of comfort of complacency, staying silently unseen forever?

Still, what I have been seeing is true faith, true radical abandoned love for Jesus has no middle seemingly “safe” ground.  There are no comfy seats to curl up in where we can wait around safely through every storm until Jesus comes.

Our faith was intended to be lived bold, outrageously, contagiously, and risky.

Because truth is….complacency will eventually destroy us.  And mediocre faith will eventually be gobbled by fear, people pleasing, and the lie that it’s o.k. to be hypocrites…looking one way on the outside, but living different in our hearts.

A few years ago I had the rug pulled out from me.  Very literally.  I felt rejected, betrayed, hurt, criticized by some of the closest people to me.

It was hard to stand alone, let alone stand up.  It would have been impossible without the grace of God to even keep breathing from moment to moment, if God hadn’t brought people around me to love and support me.

But since then, I realize we can talk all day long about living unrestrained radical lives for Jesus…but often, it isn’t until we have nothing, that we can possibly grasp that we truly can serve Him….in our deepest, darkest Job moments.

Have you had any Job moments lately?  You know, the kind that strips you from the things you once were standing on?  Have you lost everything…or had your friends condemn you? Been found standing completely all alone, nothing resounding but the echoes of you and Jesus?

Well, if so friend, there is hope!  Because as we are writing about risking rejection over at Amy Sullivan’s place this month, I started digging through scripture, asking God to show me how rejection is not a sign that God doesn’t love us…but actually can be a blessed condition for all who follow in Christ’s footsteps.

Let’s look at scripture….

• Esther’s people were rejected though she became queen.
• David had to tend sheep, rejected in battle before fighting the enemy (Goliath) and made King.
• Joseph’s brothers rejected his God-dream (Although it wasn’t delivered very humbly) He was thrown into a well before becoming ruler over the land.
• Moses was rejected by the Egyptians and called to flea into the desert, before returning to the land and leading God’s people to the promise land.
• Daniel was rejected for praying, thrown into the lion’s den.
• Ruth and Naomi were rejected because they were left alone without any living husbands.
• Rahab the Harlot was rejected by the King, prior to her helping God’s people have the victory over her region, Jericho.
• The women at the well, rejected, before meeting Jesus and evangelizing Samaria.
• The Paralytic, rejected, at the gates called beautiful.
• The blind man who couldn’t see, rejected, and begging, before made to see.
• Noah rejected for building a boat, but who became the legacy of you and me.

 O.K. we could go on and on.  In fact, the more I think about it, there are very few who weren’t rejected before stepping into a place of great victory.  See the common theme?

And could it be, we look at rejection with carnal eyes…caring what “man” thinks, living the lie, that we have to belong if we want to follow Christ?  And maybe this following actually requires our cross bearing?  Maybe this journey to this “all of Him, none of me” life requires rejection before we can really truly taste the fullness of Christ who had to die before His glory could come fully alive in us?

So, what if….Instead of hiding, cowering, fighting back with our own weapons of rejection when other people hurt us…

What if we were storm hunters, life changers, Christ pursuers that didn’t wait to be accepted before living radically, wildly, boldly His purposes, and His purposes alone?

Yes, what if we crucified the fear of not being enough?  How much could we do?  How wildly might we taste grace in a way that those appeasing, and careful, and only wanting to please others might unknowingly be missing?

When I was lost those many years ago…I thought I couldn’t go on.  I doubted I would “ever get through this”.  But, what I found was totally the opposite….

God has always been looking, scanning the whole earth over for that small remnant of people who will answer the call, abandon it all, and follow Him fearlessly despite rejection, criticism, and the risks that might come with it.

Yes, we don’t need to come at our enemies, those fear mongrels, those critical forces, those rejection giving people with slingshots and stones….derailing our focus of living all out for His glory and His glory alone….

Because who knows, at the other side of rejection, there might be a double blessings, our greatest understanding of who God is, a victory like we might never have seen or anticipated….

Will you live radically with me and a group of other amazing risk-rejecting women today, not fearing the resistance, running into the shadows, or failing to live boldly for the sake of comfort and convenience?  If so, pop on over to Amy Sullivan’s place HERE 

Because we are more than those standing on the edge, waiting for the storms to pass…

We are those who leap boldly, bravely, confidently…because God is on our side…and that’s all that matters.