"Write this down for the next generation so people not yet born will praise God." Psalm 102:18

"Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell the others." Habakkuk 2:2

Thursday, August 8, 2013

The Sting

The sting of rejection. It's something that every writer faces at some point in their career, often multiple times. It comes in many forms - not achieving a position in a contest we entered, having an editor not interested in our work perhaps even after multiple revisions, rejection from the agent we were hoping to interest to represent us and our work, or a reader who didn't like the story we wrote, bad reviews, etc.

There are a myriad of ways that we face rejection as a writer. Each time we experience a situation where things don't go the way we had hoped, we experience that sting, pain and hurt. Satan would love for us to wallow in the pain and even contemplate why we are even writing in the first place.

Yesterday as I spoke with two writer friends who had just faced 'the sting', I was reminded of how this concept relates to our life in Christ. There are many times when we face pain, hurt, disappointments, something our Lord and Savior experienced while He lived on this earth too. I don't think we'll ever not deal with the initial 'sting', but the key is what we do with it from there. Do we choose to wallow in our hurt, or do we trust that God has something better in store for us and keep moving toward that goal? Do we walk in faith even when we can't see what is ahead?

My prayer is that I will walk by faith not by sight when I face tough times. How do you respond when disappointments come your way?


2 comments:

  1. It takes a while to shake off the disappointment. Writing is such a personal thing that it feels like it's US being rejected. You are so right when you say that Jesus experienced it too. He knows.

    I was listening to a Carrie Underwood song yesterday, and a line in it really hit me as the proper response to Satan when he tries to hold us down. "You want my future, you can't have it!"

    Thanks for writing!

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  2. Thanks for stopping by, Tom.

    That's the key, isn't it - not allowing Satan to have our future - to give it to the Lord instead.

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