Surrounded by Rejection

This past week was difficult for me. From work pressures to physical problems, it has just not been my week.

I started work by coming in late from the snow on Monday and the issues just continued to go from there. I am adjusting to this new industry and new job every day. It is way different from my last job and I am realizing everyday how much more I have to learn. I have already made a few mistakes and I am humbled every time. I just know that I have been placed in this job for a reason and I am ready and willing to see why. Of course I am sure God is saving the perfect time to show all the answers to me!

On top of stress at work, I also got sick this week with an infection. It hit me hard and I am still dealing with some of the drawbacks and side effects of the illness. I am so ready for this to be over with so that I can feel like myself again and back to normal.

This week has made me nervous, jittery, weepy, whiny and finally humble. I am realizing daily that when you strip away the things of this world that truly Christ is all we have. The confidence I have on the job wavers, my own body is fighting with me, and my whole sense of self and purpose have been questioned this week. However, Christ is still my Savior and friend who loves me and accepts me no matter what is going on around me.

I am reading Henri Nouwen's Life of the Beloved (great book go and get it!!)and he speaks of the beauty of being the Beloved of Christ in a world surrounded by rejection. People, society, the media, even ourselves are constantly telling us that we aren't good enough but yet we never have to worry about what God thinks of us.

He says it so much better than I can: "Long before any human being saw us, we are seen by God's loving eyes. Long before anyone heard us cry or laugh, we are heard by our God who is all ears for us. Long before any person spoke to us in this world, we are spoken to by the voice of eternal love. Our preciousness, uniqueness, and individuality are not given to us by those who meet us in clock-time-our brief chronological existence-but by the One who has chosen us with an everlasting love, a love that existed from all eternity and will last through eternity."

These words comfort me in the midst of a bad day at work, when I am frustrated with the people who surround me, when my own negative voices confront me. Nothing can take me away from the love of Christ. The love of Christ that chose me! That unconditionally loves me. That calls me His Beloved!

So despite a rocky start to the year, I feel like I am on the right path that I am called to be on right now. Continue to pray for my family's healing and my own realization that I not defined by the rejection that surrounds me but rather the everlasting love of Christ!

Jeremiah 31:3 (New International Version)

3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, [a] saying:
"I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving-kindness.