Rejection: Picking Up the Pieces After a Hard Loss

"Now there's a dawn at every turn

You speak to me in new beginnings

A ray of sun to heal the hurt

The music stops, but You're still singing.."

Awakening / Amanda Cook

I was recently turned down for something that I wanted so badly. That’s the nice way of saying it, though. The most honest way to put it is that I was rejected or that I faced rejection. However you put it, it all hurts the same.

This was more than a rejection, though; it was a loss. This was a loss of a dream that had been placed in my heart long before I even applied. This was a loss of an opportunity I believe I would’ve benefited from. This was a loss of a position that I feel God would’ve used me greatly in. Lastly, this was a loss that I wasn’t fully expecting.

I felt robbed out of an opportunity and a season that I felt God called me to.

The day I experienced this loss and rejection, I needed to just get out so I decided to go grab something to eat off campus. We have this running joke at my dorm about having or being blessed with “princess parking.” Basically, this means that we get lucky and have a front row parking spot to the dorm, and we don’t have to walk much (laziness). I had a pretty decent parking spot that day- not princess parking but fairly close. When I got back, I saw that the spot I left was no longer there and had been taken by someone else, but there was an even better spot open- and it was prime princess parking. In that moment, I realized that I had to give up my good parking spot so that I could came back to an even better parking spot. I sat in my car and just lamented before my Father, realizing that my qualification and readiness does not come from someone else’s decision.

When I was deciding whether or not to go for this position, I told myself that I would trust in His plan and His will for this season of my life... no matter the outcome. And yet, when I was rejected, I didn’t understand how I could feel so restless over a decision I thought I would feel peace about in the end.

Every single feeling you experience is valid.

It’s okay to hurt. It’s okay to cry. It’s okay to mourn the loss of something you expected to turn out differently. It’s okay to be confused, and it’s okay to doubt, but it's not okay to stay there.

So what now? 

That is the question I’ve been asking myself for the remainder of the week. Where do I go from here? How do I pick up the pieces from this painful rejection and continue on the path set before me? 

The truth is that I don’t have a magical answer for you, because my heart still hurts when I think about it. What I do know, though, is that my Father is good. He is kind, and His heart for me is greater than any amount of rejection I will ever face. 

Does it make sense? No.

Is it still cloudy? Yes.

BUT God is faithful. I had to realize that seeking my peace and clarification from a human being would just be opening myself up to being rejected over and over again at the end of every conversation I would have. I realized that I needed to go to the source of peace instead, because HE is my strength and my song.

Through the joy, the sadness, the smiles, the tears, the confusion, the laughter, and the pain... He is my I Am, and He is yours, too.

Friends, everything we need is found in who He is. Rejection cuts deep; it’s painful. We can’t control when we don’t “make the cut,” but we can control how we respond.

Will you respond in bitterness or in grace?

My greatest prayer through this season is to respond to my rejection with grace.

I hope that you will see the peace and freedom that lives in that prayer, and that you would find rest in the arms of a Father who will never reject you.

As one of my closest friends says...

“One day and step at a time”

No matter how slow it seems or how long it takes, just keep walking- that’s when the healing takes place.