Daily Devotionals

Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life

Devotional: July 26th

The old playground. Time to choose up teams for a game of baseball. When I was very young I got used to the distinction of being rejected until the very last. Then, when I got to Johnson Bible College, near Knoxville (TN), I had to get used to it all over again. Two years later, when I had transferred to Kentucky Christian College, in Grayson, it was different. I was twenty years old and there were some guys there who already knew me and had played ball with me before. I got picked a lot more quickly.

Rejection. It's tough to deal with. Yet, everyone has, at one time or another, been touched by it. Ballplayers, workers, singers and especially writers. Did you know that poet T. S. Eliot, while working for a publishing house, rejected George Orwell's, Animal Farm? So did twenty-two other publishing houses. When finally published the book became a classic satire widely read and even recommended as reading for literature classes in middle schools, high schools and colleges.

Theodore Geisel struggled to get his first book printed. It, like Animal House, was rejected by twenty-three different publishing houses before it was finally accepted. The book went on to sell millions of copies and launch a storied career that is unrivalled in publishing today. That first book was, And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street. The author you know better as Dr. Seuss. Other now best-selling works suffered similar fates. Dune was rejected thirteen times before finally published; M*A*S*H* took twenty-one tries and Kon-Tiki twenty.

Samuel was chosen by God to be His servant. He was dedicated to God from birth by his mother, Hannah. He served under old Eli and grew in his abilities until he was a trusted and mighty servant of God who was judging Israel. He also set his sons up as judges. They were not as honest and truthful as their father and soon the people were clamoring for Samuel to give them a king because his sons were corrupt and he was getting old. Rejection.

"The thing displeased Samuel when they said, 'Give us a king to judge us.' So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, 'Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.' " 1 Samuel 8:6, 7 Rejection. Even God has to put up with it. As we do and will as we choose to serve the living God through His Son, the Christ. But consider this; it is far better to be rejected by men and accepted by God rejected by God and accepted by men.