By Chris WittsSaturday 28 Sep 2024Morning Devotions with Chris WittsFaithReading Time: 1 minute
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Transcript:
Have you ever seen the popular movie Back to the Future? In the story, Marty McFly goes back in time to the year 1955—you might remember the film. And he goes back to make sure that his mother falls in love with his dad.
And there’s a scene where Marty tries to get his dad to ask her out. And his father says, “You mean on a date?” And Marty says, “Yeah.” And the dad says, “Gee, I don’t know, Marty. I mean, what if she says no? What if she laughs at me? I just don’t think I can take that kind of a rejection. You know what I mean?” And Marty looks down and says, “Yes. Yes, I know what you mean.”
Human interaction: acceptance or rejection
The truth is that we all know what he means. No one likes to be rejected—it hurts. This is because we mix with people all the time, and all human interaction has at its heart the possibility of both acceptance and rejection. When we meet someone we know in the street we have the choice of whether we talk to them or not. If we say hello and they say hello we are accepted. If we say hello and they do not, then we are rejected—provided they’ve heard us of course.
Being rejected makes you feel like you’re not good enough. That everyone is better than you. That you’re a loser. Have you ever felt like a loser? It’s not a nice experience.
When we are rejected we feel like a loser.
You may have experienced rejection up close and personal. Maybe you had a boyfriend or girlfriend who didn’t want to be with you anymore. Or maybe there was a job that you lost. Or maybe you had a parent who kept yelling, You’ll never amount to anything! You’re just a nobody!
Whatever it was, at some point in your life, you experienced a painful rejection. And you decided then and there that you didn’t want to be hurt like that ever again. It could be you were different to others in your family—not like your brother or sister—and your mother said You shouldn’t think like that—what will the others think of you?
To reject something actually means to throw it out as worthless, useless or substandard. It means to refuse to accept it or believe in it. When someone rejects you they are saying that you are not good enough to associate with them. They are saying that they refuse to believe in you.
Have you ever felt like this?
The fear of rejection is all-too-real in many people’s experience. Life is filled with fear questions. Carol Kent lists a number of these fears of rejection in her book Tame Your Fears:
- I’m afraid you will leave me.
- If I tell you the truth about my past, you will push me away.
- If I’m vulnerable with you, I could become embarrassed and humiliated.
- I have been betrayed by someone in the past, and it won’t happen to me again.
- If I don’t change my appearance, you will think I’m fat and unattractive, and you might reject me.
- I feel unworthy of your love.
- The people I trusted the most in the past have let me down. I wonder when you will abandon me.
Sometimes, rejection even finds its way into the ranks of the church. Have you ever felt like that? Rejected? And alone? Do you think that people in the Bible ever felt like that? Absolutely! Lots of them. Do you remember the story of Joseph in Genesis 37? And how his brothers were jealous of him? “Look guys! Here comes the dreamer! Here comes the guy who thinks he’s better than everybody! Let’s teach him a lesson! Let’s get rid of him forever!”
And what about Moses? You remember in Exodus 2 when he killed the Egyptian? Because he was trying to help his fellow Jews? But they rejected his help. In verse 14, one of them even said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? No one asked for your help! Are you going to kill me too?”