No one wants to be rejected.
There are instances and even lifestyles where rejection becomes a protective behavior, reflex and norm, but in our holy of holies, we crave acceptance.
Think Shrek!
Now that’s an old movie by today’s standards - but it holds a treasure trove of situational truth.
Layers, layers, Ogres are like onions, they have layers.
One of the most difficult things we walk through are our middle school years. I’ve never heard anyone, ever, EVER say, “Oh I wish I could go back to middle school - they were the best years of my life,” If so, your life before and after middle school must have been traumatizing.
I’ve got volumes of thoughts on middle school and middle schoolers; I taught them for too long. But here’s the one thing that stands out the most and is the most dangerous.
A middle schooler will do ANYTHING, A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G to be accepted..., OR s/he will build layers.
Our brains are not fully developed until we are 25; but our emotions are at full throttle early in life. Add to it that kids are the best keepers of history but the worst interpreters of history and you have the perfect storm for the rejection mechanism. Afterall, if I don’t get my way - I feel rejected, blocked, angry and resentful.
Funny thing, we’re just grown up middle schoolers. Layers. We all have ‘em.
Our rejections have a long line of mile markers we can point to that enticed us to build controlling and protective mindsets to deal with the people, institutions (school, church, work, etc.) and the world around us. As just one example of past hurts, if we have battled an addiction, our rejections were key in delivering the justification for “just try it.”
We’ll do A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G to be accepted. Experimentation, drugs, sex, alcohol, cutting, adrenaline seeking, escapism, personality-shaping - all of it can be tied to rejection.
Our final bridge for today Jeremiah 31:3 assures us:
The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.
We build walls - God tears them down. He did this through His Son Jesus.
The world knows John 3:16 and many times brushes it off, but Jesus continues the thought in John 3:17. Read those verses and mark them in your Bible today.
Let Him begin to remove the layers.