Day Two: Included
Jenn Schultz
My stomach clenched and my chest tightened at the same time. I stared at the photos on my phone as I connected the dots.
A group of friends had gone on a girls trip. They were smiling brightly, linked arm in arm, enjoying the sunshine. And I was observing it after the fact, from the outside. There had been some debate about the trip happening at all, and now it was clear they had decided to go, without telling me the plan. Even though it was a misunderstanding, it still stung.
Rejection happens in a range of ways, from the friend that was supposed to follow up but didn’t, to the mean girl in school who humiliated you, to the team that cut you from its lineup, to the job that never made the offer. From the parent figure that fell short of their role, to the person who judged you based on appearance, to the cliques already formed at the lunch tables with no empty seats.
Are you familiar with the hurt that comes with being left out? Physical pain and rejection activate the same parts of the brain, so it makes sense that the two are intertwined. And then there’s the emotional pain, the tailspin of doubt, discouragement, and despair.
One of our core questions as humans is belonging, and it hurts in all the ways–body, mind, and spirit–when others seem to answer that question, intentionally or unintentionally, with a resounding no.
And if we’re honest, most of us have been on both sides of the equation. We’ve been rejected and we reject. We’ve been excluded, and we exclude. Sometimes it feels safer, or even powerful, to be one of the in crowd.
Ephesians 2 talks about exclusion and being on the outside. We started out lost, disobedient, dead. Our own choices to follow the world and pursue our own cravings kept us there. And then many of us were also excluded, left out and hopeless, due to the choices of people who came before us to leave God; he ended up choosing a people of his own.
It’s important to know that people’s choices kept us on the outside, not God’s. He can’t have anything to do with sin and darkness; it would compromise who He is. This indicates that God relates to us. He knows what it’s like to be rejected.
Thankfully, alongside speaking to His goodness, love, and light, this chapter also displays God’s heart toward human beings: His love and mercy and grace that wouldn’t allow anything to stand in the way of us being with Him. The whole Bible pieces together a story of God redeeming us and bringing us back where we belong: back into family and relationship with him.
Jesus came to obliterate all walls that keep us from God, and even from each other, by paying off the debt of our sin so we could be reconciled to God. And it’s all because of grace.
While these words might not eliminate the pain of rejection when it comes to other people, they are truths we can hold on to, and promises we can trust; ones that are planted securely in God’s faithfulness. Though others may reject or exclude you, God will not. He invites you in. He desperately wants to be with you.
Walk Worthy Challenge: Consider who you might invite or include that might be feeling lonely or left out.
Prayer: Father, we are so grateful for your invitation to be brought near to you. You removed the barriers and didn’t leave that monumental task up to us. We know what it’s like to be rejected, and you understand that very same feeling.
0 Comments