Rejection | Kyle McMurray Coaching, LLC

Ep. 79

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As we dive into today’s topic… It’s one that I face quite often and I’m sure you do too. Even with our Coaching clients, we find that this is a huge driver to many things we do in our lives. You’re listening to Living the Freedom Life, this is episode 79 and today we are talking about Rejection.

Ah yes. Rejection. All of us have experienced it, there is no need wasting time defining it. That’s why our podcast is short. I want to respect your time. Everyone is busy. You don’t need to spend 40 minutes listening to fluff when we can boil it down to 5.

Hmmmm, I just realized, that could sound a little like Rejection in certain circumstances.

Rejection is a driving force that can either dig a deep hole in our soul or, motivate us to do things or go places we wouldn’t have tried otherwise.

I’m going to make a bold statement here, there is only one cure for Rejection. Only one. The only cure for Rejection is Acceptance.

That doesn’t mean in order for me to be healed, I need to be accepted from the Opposing Red Rover team that always picked me and then laughed when I didn’t make it through the line.

In other words, I don’t need to be accepted by the specific person who rejected me. Most of the time, that is not a reality. Coming to that truth is hard and I don’t minimize it. Because even though I joked about playing Red Rover, we are talking about a serious matter. Rejection is a cruel and powerful thing. As I said, it can either dig a deep hole in our soul, or motivate us into greatness.

When I began to read the Bible, I started where you read all books, at the beginning. At the time, not much of the Bible made sense to me, at all. But I remember when I got a little ways into it, I came across where two brothers gave a sacrifice to God. Cain and Abel. I didn’t really get tied up in why they were giving sacrifices to Him, but I remember thinking that it was a pretty harsh thing to “Reject” one and accept the other. How great it must be to be accepted.

I had been rejected and I put myself there, in this brother’s shoes, feeling his rejection, and like him, I was angry about it.

Now, the unfolding of that situation in my heart caused, not a monologue, but a dialogue between God and me. It was one of the first times that I’ve ever recognized it was Him.

I was asking “Why did you reject me?” When it comes down to it, that’s what everyone wants to know, isn’t it? We instantly start to doubt the type of person we are. Rejection feels like we are some kind of horrible person. We search for some kind of logic to make sense of why we were rejected. Mostly only finding pain.

Rejection hurts. The closer the person is to us, the deeper the pain turns out to be.

Now there are some people that seem to live in the realm of rejection. Do you know someone like that? They get offended about everything. Well, it may mean something entirely different than you think.

It may mean that they’ve had such a pattern of rejection in their life, that this is where they find acceptance. Even if it means getting rejected all over again. The hope of finding even a shimmer of momentary acceptance at the expense of getting shut down is still better.

I’ll say it again, Acceptance is the only cure for Rejection.

There are other people that take rejection and turn it into fuel. They are motivated by it. It empowers them.

But either path we choose, Rejection is a powerful driving force and acceptance is the only thing that will extinguish it. Acceptance is the only thing that can reverse the damage done by being Rejected.

Wanna know what the Lord said to me when I was reading in Gen 4 about Cain and Abel?

If you know the story, and if you know mine, you will see. But He did the same thing with me as He did Cain.

First off, He let me live. There was a time where I wanted to die and He knew that. Because of the position I was in, He also knew that I beat myself up for the sin that I’m responsible for in my life. And He made me a promise. The same one that He made Cain. That He will be with me. That no one will kill me. And it turned out for Cain, that he had a wife, a family and was building a city. Apparently, Cain was responsible for great influence around him and he knew that it wasn’t about him.

Cain found acceptance. God gave me acceptance too. Not just mere acceptance, but He has proven Himself to be a keeper of His promises, He loves us, He wants to bless us, He wants us to live this Freedom Life that we keep talking about.

I know we’re out of time today, but I want to tell you that if you are feeling rejected, ask God some questions. He just may be waiting to wrap you up in His arms, accept you right where you are, and give you the opportunity to find out how His promises lay out in your life.

Until next time, Living the Freedom Life, this is Kyle