Rejection is singularly one of the most painful things that we can ever go through, because we’re made to be loved. We’re social creatures made to be part of a family, part of a community. Yep, rejection can be devastating, but it’s not the end. Rejection doesn’t have to define us. It doesn’t have to stop us living our best life.

Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in 1822, in Dorchester County, Maryland in the USA. She was rejected by a society that devalued both her race and her gender.

After escaping, she returned again and again to rescue over seventy enslaved people via the smuggling route known as the “Underground Railroad”. She risked her life, returning thirteen times, using secret routes and safe house in Pennsylvania and Canada.

Yet despite her rejection, her courage and faith made her an enduring symbol of freedom. She continues to inspire movements for justice today. Jesus put it like this:

John 15:20-21 Remember the lesson I told you: Servants are not greater than their master. If people treated me badly, they will treat you badly too. And if they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours too. They will do to you whatever they did to me, because you belong to me. They don’t know the one who sent me.

People will reject you for your faith in Jesus; for your refusal to partake in the evil of this world; for showing love in the face of hatred. They did it to Him, they’ll do it to you.

Follow Jesus anyway. Live your best life, anyway.

That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.