Rejection makes for good company

Rejection. If you have felt its sting -- and who hasn't -- you're in good company. Thomas Edison was called "too stupid to learn" by his teacher. Abraham Lincoln failed at two businesses and lost six elections. Walt Disney was fired from a newspaper because he "had no imagination." The first African American Academy Award Winner for Best Actor, Sidney Poitier, was told after his first audition by the casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" Michael Jordan, cut from his high school basketball team, went home, locked himself in his room, and cried. The Beatles were turned down by Decca Recording Company who said, "We don't like their sound," and Lucille Ball was dismissed from her drama school -- she was "too shy to put her best foot forward."

Anyone who takes a risk, risks failure.

The admirable thing about the people listed above is that they refused to give others the right to convince them to quit. If they had, imagine what might have happened: you would be reading this by candlelight; African Americans might still be picking cotton; the Oscars would have been altered in twenty categories; there would be no Space Mountain or Donald Duck; Air Jordan would be the name of a plane manufacturer; American Bandstand would still be the rage; and we would have missed one of the greatest television shows ever created. Aren't you glad these celebrities persisted, were willing to take risks, and refused to buy into other peoples' opinions?

Not a few biblical women, second-class citizens in those days, took risks. When the evil Sisera fled to Jael's tent, she gave him a cot, covered him, and drove a tent peg through his skull when he fell asleep. Abigail took it upon herself to meet and bestow food and drinks on David and his raiding party as they were traveling to kill her husband. Rahab, the prostitute, helped the Israeli spies escape. Ruth left her family and native land to follow her mother-in-law, Naomi. The hemorrhaging woman, after 12 years of bleeding, reached out to touch the hem of Jesus' garment, and Mary Magdalene poured perfume on the head of Jesus, in spite of the fact that she was a prostitute and everyone was chastising her for honoring him so.

This past Christmas a student left a card in my mailbox. On it she had written, "If you are afraid of falling, you will never fly." There are far too many Christians who have allowed others' opinions to dictate to them who they are, who are so afraid of falling that they refuse to use their God-given talents to attempt to take off.

"I've always wanted to start a Bible study, but my friend tells me no one will come because I'm not an expert on the scriptures."

"I'd love to sing in the choir, but my husband says there are plenty of others with better voices."

"I've dreamed of going on a missions' trip, but my mother is convinced I'll be killed if I leave this country."

Maybe it's time we Christians follow the model of persistence set by the characters listed above, take a few bumps and bruises, and refuse to give anyone else the power to make us be less than God wants us to be. Ask yourself where you have been equipped or what dream you might have, and then go for it.

The worst thing that might happen is not that you try and fail; it's that you never try at all.