Rejection

 . . . the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction.

 - From Isaiah 30

I had three heartbreaks in life, that I thought would kill me.

The first was a girl I met at Church Camp, as a counselor, when I was nineteen years of age. The relationship was strictly platonic, if that. But we hit it off really well at first, and began talking about corresponding during the year and even trying to meet up. But without warning, with two days left in the camp, she went cold on me. She just stopped talking, and would take the long way around, so that she would not have to interact with me.

The second was the first woman I ever really (felt like I) fell in love with. There was a level of vulnerability and intimacy that I had never shared with anyone before. She too went cold, suddenly, without warning. Although we lived in different towns, she just stopped interacting. If it had been post-2000, both of these first two women would probably have "ghosted" me.

The third was my divorce. You can't "ghost" someone in a divorce, especially if there are kids.

Each of three cases were true heartbreaks. My chest hurt, physically. I thought that death would be a welcome change, if it would remove the pain.

The death of a loved one is easier to handle, than to be rejected by someone else, especially a close friend, or loved one, or most importantly, a romantic love interest. This is so, because we put so much of ourselves into it. We share more of ourselves. We let down our guard. We have a sort of selfish interest in the relationship continuing.

Other hardships - financial loss, illness, career setbacks . . . these are afflictions of life that make us feel like failures.

But God makes adversity and affliction into assets for us. We almost should welcome them, as they will make us more like Him. We can become a support to others, if we too have gone through difficulties.

My romantic heartbreaks led to some real advantages for me later: my life's passion, The Hudson Education Center, would never have happened had I not experienced the severe rejection of others.

Some day I'll thank these women for rejecting me.



Bread give us protein and nutrients.

Water keeps everything working efficiently, like oil to a machine. You cannot survive long without it.

Adversity toughens us up.

Affliction let's us know we're alive, by healing us providing us with immunity.