Umm.... No

Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from Me!  

- Psalm 66:20

I love to watch TED Talks.  In eighteen minutes, you can learn how to spot a liar, what it’s like to have a stroke, why we should be eating bugs for our protein. Recently, I got up the nerve to audition to present the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Call at the upcoming Denver TED Talk.  I filled out the online application, said a quick prayer, then sat back and waited for an acceptance email.  This week, I was rejected.  

Although I didn’t make the cut out of this year’s 807 applicants, they at least liked the idea and recommended I apply for future talks.  I should have been encouraged, but instead all I could think was: I was rejected.  

When was the last time you were rejected?  How did it make you feel?  Were you gracefully accepting or did you want to kick the nearest cat across the room?

On his first job search out of college, my husband was turned down so many times that he was able to wallpaper almost an entire wall with the rejection letters.  He still has them in a file folder.  This is the opposite of my reaction to rejection, which is to lash out and burn the letters.  Which one of us can you relate to?

But God…. There are so many amazing “But God” truths in the Bible!  One powerful one is, people or jobs might reject you but God never, ever does. He will never withhold His amazing love, no matter how unqualified we may be for the "job."  

Here’s another amazing truth: God has a divine plan for our lives.  He uses the world’s rejections to teach, humble, encourage, and move us in the right direction.  With that understanding, I am trying to humbly accept my TED talk rejection as a message that God is calling me to learn more about His truth and improve my speaking skills before allowing me to take the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Call Movement to a bigger stage.

Are you willing to take a rejection, reflect on it, learn from it, and continue to run after the dreams you have for your life?  It’s a tough road, but it’s worth getting back up after the rejection to find yourself stronger and more determined to keep on keeping on knowing that God is with you and for you. 

The Power of Giving God Thanks Will Ignite Your Faith and Change Your World!

Thank You for Being a part of the 3 O’Clock Wake Up Movement