Ouch! It hurts, doesn’t it? As you sit and calculate just where you went wrong. Find anything yet? Maybe, maybe not. How come? I mean, you did everything right! How could things end so horribly wrong?

Aahh… We’ve all been there. We have all been stung by the bee of rejection or unrequited love; hurts like hell. For most of us, love is merited and boy do we not fall short! What if we could step back from the self-loathing and self-blame and see love for what it is. What if love cannot be earned, only accepted. What if love cannot be controlled only embraced and permitted to flow in our hearts. What if that unrequited love is never lost? What if it returns wrapped in the cloak of compassion, to soften one’s heart?

Christ had compassion for the lost. He compassionately loved even when He was rejected. He loved through compassion. Feelings had nothing to do with it. He allowed people to choose to reject and abandon ship without taking offence or launching a commission of enquiry. Being left is excruciatingly painful, especially by those we hold dearly and have good motives. Yet Christ never stopped loving just because He was rejected by plenty of people. He interceded from a place of compassion.

You do not have to change who you are when people hurt or reject you. Rejection does not imply that we have to find the sharpest scalpel and dissect all that is unfavourable about us. Christ loved to the point of shedding blood and yet even to this day is rejected by many. How did He continue to drink the cup and finish it? His eyes were not on the multitude, only gazing at the joy that was set before Him. Was Christ robbed of anything when He was abandoned by His own disciples? No.

You would think that for a man with such good intentions, some would dare to die. Not even one of His disciples though. At some point, even the cross looked like a losing game. Christ came to die and lived to die.

God knows the people who are linked to our destinies and for how long they should be in our lives. We maintain relationships but we do not imprison anyone. God sustains all destined relationships.

To love and lose feels like utter defeat and failure in human perspective. Let not past experiences torment you; learn from them but do not make them your habit. What you dwell on will sure be your dwelling place. Let it all work out for your good, slowly making way for the person you are meant to become. Abhor what is evil and bitter, let the dead leaves fall. Cleave to what is good. We become bitter and anticipate future rejection when we make self-referential conclusions about rejection instead of embracing it is as a re-direction to our rightful path. Love is good. Your rejection was nothing personal. Only a matter of destiny.

Tell us: Do you agree that rejection is nothing personal?