From Rejection to Acceptance

If we’ve ever been rejected we will then understand how life seems to appropriate events that may not be to our liking but after some challenges the results are a spiritual sign from God. As I wrote before about a dumb thing to quit high school and join the U.S. Army. Twice my absence of a high school diploma kept me from being chosen to OCS (officer’s candidate school) and an opportunity to attend the Army’s Communications school. If there was a way to view the future I would have seen my being ordained a deacon twenty years later. One might say that was just a chance that these events took place. Remember God does not deal with chance.

It’s always interesting to read the events of biblical heroes who went through so many disappointments or treachery from close friends or relatives and ended up as a king or second in command of the great country of Egypt.

The Lord said to Samuel: “How long will you grieve for Saul, whom I have rejected as king of Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen my king from among his sons.” (I Sm 16: 1). Who among even great prophets would have believed that from the youngest among siblings that God would choose one who was just a shepherd to become king of Israel? But that is not for mortals to discern since only God knows what he is about and his kingdom relies upon the least of his flock to become the leaders of his kingdom. “God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.” (1 Cor 1: 28 - 29).

Perhaps we might look at Joseph, another young man who became outstanding to the people he came from by showing his brothers a love and forgiveness that brought the famine to an end by becoming the servant of God to all people of that region. (Gn 41: 1 ff).

From simple and non-adherent events God reaches into humanity to extend his kingdom through the least of servants and makes a nation of believers out of sinners who already were condemned because of not knowing his Son, Jesus Christ. (Jn 3: 18).

We must go back to creation and find the very essence of God’s creatures who would fall away from the divine element of the Holy Trinity that was responsible for their human life, and receive forgiveness that even the fallen angels did not get.

Examining the importance that our Creator placed upon this entity that is human life, we must notice that God did not by chance place us as living creatures to cultivate the earth and allow us an opportunity to meet his Son, Jesus Christ, and establish respect for God’s trust in believing the truth of his posterity in us. Instead the Lord of heaven and earth entrusted to each one of us an opportunity to find and accept the grace that comes from our faith which is our salvation. No matter what our status as a nobody the Lord Jesus Christ used his Spirit to guide and teach us how to become humble as we learned from him that it isn’t in our eventful degrees that prove who we are; it is through the grace that God hands us causing our own surprised life.

“But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name.” (Is 43: 1). We must never doubt that God is he who calls each one into his chosen ministry. Accepting that call in spite of seemingly restrictions he will always see us through to find and discover a world beyond our imagination.

Ralph B. Hathaway