Rejection is a Redirection from God
In the middle of deciding on what to do about a project I was working on, I get a call from my daughter who is in college 400 miles away. “Dad, I locked my spare keys in my car. Do you have the code to the buttons on the car door to open it?”
“No Sweetie I don’t. We’ve never used it,” I said to her.
She lost her regular keys and was using her spare keys for the past couple of days. I told her that the next option was to call Triple-A and have them unlock her car, but she had an important appointment with her basketball coaches at school in 45 minutes and didn’t have time to wait for Triple-A. In fact, her meeting, and then classes, and then workouts, and then upcoming exams, were going to occupy her entire life for the day. I could feel the frustration rising in her voice.
I decided to stay on the phone and talk to her as she walked back to her dorm to look for her keys. When she got to her room, I asked her where she had the keys last, what she remembered doing the last time she used her keys, and why not look in places that she thought the keys might not be, since they weren’t where they were supposed to be.
After 10 minutes, she said, “Dad! Dad! Dad! I found them!”
“Yaay! Where were they?” I asked.
“In the side zipper pocket of my athletic bag,” she said. “I don’t know how they got there but what a relief.”
“I am so glad you found them. You’re going to have a great day. I love you Sweetie,” I said.
“Thanks Daddy. I really needed to hear that today. Thank you for helping me. I love you too.”
I hung up and sat at my desk, reflecting on how much I appreciated the opportunity to be available to my daughter at that moment. I smiled to myself.
When I returned to battle the difficulties with my project, I paused for a moment, realizing that the frustration I was feeling about my project, was exactly like the frustration that I heard in my daughter’s voice about her lost keys. But unlike my daughter calling on her father to help her with her frustrations, I had not called upon the Lord to help me with mine about my project. I was trying to plow right on through on my own.
Psalm 34:11 says, “Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD,” (NKJV). God used my daughter to teach me that I need to go to Him for everything, especially when I am frustrated. In fact, I have learned that being frustrated is a sign that I am trying to do things my own way without help from the Lord.
I stopped and shook my head and sighed. It is confounding to me sometimes how I know that I have a heavenly Father and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but when I am facing difficulties and frustrations, I try to plow right through them on my own rather than call on God first.
I am so glad that the Lord is acquainted with all my ways (Psalm 139) and knows what I need when I need it. He allowed my daughter to lose her keys so that I would be reminded to call on Him as my daughter called on me. God is so good.
I stepped back from my project and said, “Lord, I’m not sure what to do here. Can You help me make a decision and give me peace about it?” I put my project down and did something else.
Later that day I received an email. It was the answer I was looking for and the confirmation from God that I needed. I had peace about it, and I knew that I was going to have a great day.
I said, “Lord, thank You for helping me. I love You too.”
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