Rejection

Just about the 10th time someone says, "you know, George, we love you and Debbie, and we love Stone Church, but there is this issue about speaking in tongues, so we have decided to go to another church," it begins to wear you down.

Rejection is never, ever fun.

Remember the feelings of choosing up sides for playing (football, basketball or baseball) when you were a kid?  You wanted anything but being chosen last for a team.

Some remember not making a sports team.

Or being chosen for an activity.

Or having their heart broken by a girl or a boy.

Or failing a test.

As adults, some have experienced the rejection of divorce, losing a job, not being hired on for a job.

It goes on and on.

Rejection is never, ever fun.

Rejection hurts.

According to a Reuters article, that "kicked-in-the-gut" feeling that you get when you're ignored at a party or not chosen for a team generates physical symptoms. According to the article, "Brain-imaging studies show that a social snub affects the brain precisely the way visceral pain does."

"When someone hurts your feelings, it really hurts you," states Matt Lieberman, a social psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who worked on the study.

In the study, 13 "volunteers were given a task they did not know related to an experiment in social snubbing. Writing in the journal Science, Lieberman and Naomi Eisenberger said the brains of the volunteers lit up when they were rejected in virtually the same way as a person experiencing physical pain.

"In the English language we use physical metaphors to describe social pain like 'broken heart' and 'hurt feelings,"' said Eisenberger. "Now we see that there is good reason for this."

I guess where I am headed today is this thought - rejection hurts, so let's practice love, acceptance and forgiveness this day.  As a Christian, the Word encourages us continually to "reach out" rather than "reject" those around us.

There is so much rejection in the world - others don't need us to "pile on" as Christians.

So, when you are tempted to snub somebody or "not speak with someone" or turn your back on a friend or foe, remember this - Jesus never, ever rejects us - and we are to encourage those around us as well.

Just a thought for a Thursday.