I read something life-changing this morning:
“Rejection is a type of communication.”
from The Search for Significance: Seeing Your True Worth Through God’s Eyes
This means that rejection could mean:
- You confuse me
- I don’t get you
- You don’t fit my paradigm so I don’t know how to act with you
- I am overloaded and don’t have emotional energy for this relationship
- You are doing something offensive and I don’t know how to talk to you about it
- You have beliefs that I can’t reconcile and I can’t see you as a person right now
- Or, for some of us “sorry – I was so far in my head I didn’t realize you were talking.”
None of these are bad – they are all perfectly acceptable responses. After all, there are 7 billion people on the planet – we are bound to hit a few people we really can’t relate to.
This opens up our ability to respond to rejection. Just contemplating this will help you respond to rejection with grace – both for yourself and for others.
One Response
Very insightful!