Rejection is Just Redirection by Peggianne Wright

Photo credit: P. Wright, 2026

WOW…that hurt! When my dearest friend told me via email that she didn’t want to study the Bible with me any longer, that was about as gut-wrenching as it gets. We’d been sharing the Lord’s Word for over a year so it was truly heartbreaking news. Through days of flooding tears and agonizing self-recriminations, I couldn’t think of much else. It dogged my every thought, coming back over and over as I reread her email in my head again and again. The sting of the words and the feeling of abandonment. The REJECTION.

Rejection. Just writing the word makes me sad. But when it’s coupled with something sacred like sharing scripture together, it feels so much more sorrowful. It stirs a plethora of shattered feelings in my heart and soul.

God’s timing is perfect. We all know that. In fact, when my father passed away in April of 2020, just as COVID was ramping up, I cried at his bedside that I wouldn’t have anyone to share my faith with after he’d gone. It had been just him and me loving the Lord together after Mom had passed away two years earlier. Then, out of the blue and totally unexpectedly my friend asked if I would like to do a Bible study with her. God did that!

For an entire year, I created and wrote a weekly Bible study walking us through the New Testament. But when she decided to quit, I was shattered and stunned. I kept asking God for answers. Was I too much this or not enough that? In my love of the Word and zest for learning, had I become too intense? Had my desire to share and teach overstepped boundaries? Had I been insensitive to my friend in some way? What had I done or not done? Was I simply a COVID distraction? On and on and on.

The Lord knows I am a “bottler” and I don’t always hand my problems to Him right away. At the first hint of a negative situation, I roll up in a tight ball like an armadillo. So, my first impulse was to go into hiding; basically isolate myself from the rest of the world. After all, in my deep humiliation of being rejected, it was a natural human reaction. Right? Sure, human but absolutely not Christian.

A few days later, as I was driving home from an errand that had taken me over an hour’s highway drive east, the “replay button” in my head still kept clicking. Why? Why? Why? And then, “What do I do now?”

But then God decided enough was enough! Enough tears. Enough sad feelings. Enough self-pity.

All of a sudden, I began to realize that this was God’s message to me to get serious about pursuing plans I had put on hold for over a year already. Plans I had never had time to act on because of this study with my friend.

A huge burden seemed to melt and I immediately began to feel some excitement. I realized at that moment that this was God’s planning all along!

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV)

Often, if we’re quiet in our pain, God will come along side and provide the guidance we need to navigate a dark time. During that solo car trip, He laid out a fresh two-forked path that blessed me enormously.

Fork 1: The Launch of a Dream.

For the better part of 18 months before all the turmoil unfolded, I had been harbouring a dream of launching a unique ministry and writing career. At that very moment, my Paws To Pray pet parent ministry was born. And, in the five years since, I have also been blessed to have written and published five books. I’ve been published in Guideposts and collaborated with a group of Christian women writers on a writer’s devotional.

Fork 2: Personal Growth.

Dealing with rejection isn’t a one-size-fits-all strategy. Working through it takes courage and strength and honesty. When broken down into a few steps, I found that dealing with a wide range of emotions became manageable, allowing each one to be recognized and attended to.

Acknowledging the hurt we feel is one of the most important steps. If possible, put down thoughts on paper and then even put them into prayer.

Be kind to oneself in the process. Write a short list of some positive things about yourself including some of your strengths and values. This will help face self-doubt. Then pray over it.

Take time to process your feelings. Be sure to reserve reaction for later. Ask God to hold your hand.

Look for the positive take-aways. It may take time for this to happen but, with the right attitude and mindset, you’ll realize that a lesson of some kind, a new opportunity, some other positive experience, or even the removal of a negative circumstance has come from this.

As part of this rejection, I had considered stepping back from this friendship altogether. But, I realized that I was acting completely opposite to what Jesus expects of me. Putting myself in my friend’s shoes helped me accept that the time had come to make a change and I should be grateful that we shared those many months growing our faith together.

Facing rejection head on with God’s guidance, I realized a dream that has given me purpose; pointing others to Him. When I wondered with whom I would share my faith after that, God whispered, “I created a whole wide world out there for you to share your faith.”

His gentle reminder tells me that rejection isn’t bad if it’s view as an opportunity. In fact, today’s rejection is really God’s redirection.

Peggianne Wright is a published author and is the founder of the pet parent ministry Paws To Pray, blending her passion for the Lord and all-things-K9 to form this unique, faith-based community. Peggianne is an ardent Bible study student, devoted dog mom, wife of 44 years, and lover of music. Her blogs Spiritual Scribbles and Fur-Kid Fanatics can be found on her website www.PawsToPray.ca and you can follow her on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/PawsToPray/ and on IG @Sister_In_Prayer.

Unthankful: 0 Files Found by Bob Jones

 Photo by Ato Aikins on Unsplash

 

Have you ever transferred computer files from one server to another? It should be simple, right? You move the files. You check that everything arrived. You move on.

At least, that's what I thought.

For more than a year, I had been piecing together a book. I had collected quotes from books I was reading, sections from sermons I had preached, and stories about people who had inspired me. Slowly, the pieces were beginning to form something I cared about.

The title was going to be Believe Well, Live Well: The Essential Faithful Life.

The premise was simple: learning to believe what is true is essential to learning to live faithfully. What we believe about God, ourselves, other people, suffering, truth, and the future inevitably shapes the way we live.

Then our organization changed servers.

An IT technician was assigned to transfer the files of our staff, including mine. The process was completed, and I thought nothing more about it.

Until a few weeks later. I went looking for the file containing my book.

It wasn't there.

I searched again.

Nothing.

I searched all my files by the title.

Zero files found.

The technician did his own search.

Same result.

I felt sick.

Eventually, we discovered that a segment of my files had never transferred.

The technician was as mystified as I was. "This doesn't make sense. I don't know what happened to your files."

The files were gone.

So was a year of work.

This happened more than thirty years ago,

but I can still remember the feeling of despair. My colleagues encouraged me to reconstruct the manuscript from memory, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't have the heart for it.

I couldn't get my head around trying to recreate something that had taken me more than a year to assemble. I wanted the manuscript back. And when I couldn't have it back, I gradually convinced myself that perhaps it didn't matter.

My own worst enemy of an inner voice began whispering:

The book probably wouldn't have been very good anyway. Maybe it's just as well the file disappeared.

And my busy schedule provided a convenient excuse to move on.

Looking back, there is an irony I completely missed at the time.

The book was called Believe Well, Live Well. And I certainly wasn't believing well.

The writing prompt for this month brought that memory back to me:

"Share a story of when you found it difficult to give

thanks in your writing life. What did God teach you

through that experience?"

I wasn't thankful thirty years ago. And, honestly, I'm not particularly thankful for losing the manuscript today. But I am thankful for this writers' group.

I'm thankful for a writing prompt that reached back three decades and pulled an unfinished story back into the light.

And perhaps I'm beginning to understand what God might have been teaching me.

I still believe the premise of that long-lost book:

Believing well doesn't mean believing that everything

will go well. It means believing what is true

even when things don't go well.

Maybe the book wasn't lost after all.

Maybe only the first draft was.

Have you ever lost a manuscript? A file? Or simply the motivation to continue something you once believed was worth doing?

Maybe it's time to begin again.

 

Thank you for reading.

A Prayer to the Giver of Words by Lorrie Orr

 

October's Prompt: Believers are told to “give thanks in all circumstances.” Share a story of when you found it difficult to give thanks in your writing life. What did God teach you through that experience?

Photo: Lorrie Orr

Sometimes the words come easily and sometimes they don't. This was a month when writing a post was like pulling teeth. Hence, a prayer, always a good idea.

A Prayer to the Giver of Words

O God and Word come to earth

In your mysterious gifting you have given me the desire

To fashion words into beauty and meaning.

On mornings when the leaves dance in the light,

and my garden is alive with dahlias bright and sprawling cosmos;

when hummingbirds whirr in the top of the birch tree,

and the Dark-eyed Juncos dart in and out of the hedge,

A sense of wellness sinks deep into my being.

Words, like flocks of feathers, alight on the page,

And I am satisfied with their shape.

Yes, I say, and thank you.

 

On mornings when the wind curls around the corners of my soul

And rain batters my heart

When words are mere marks on paper or screen,

ugly and stupid,

when beauty is trapped as I wrestle –

this word or that one,

this sentence here, or there, or nowhere --

I sit empty and frustrated.

Then.

In despair,

I remember your words and I find shelter.

And steadiness. And hope. And love.

I trust you, the giver of blessings and of words,

And I believe beyond my feelings

that in days or weeks or months,

the words will once again fly lightly and land with grace,

shaped into beauty that honours your gift.

Lorrie Orr writes from Vancouver Island, BC.

She is the author of one book, a memoir, Life is Short but Wide,

and has a number of other books waiting to be worked on,

as well as a vast amount of writing in her head.

She also writes on Substack and her personal slice of life blog.

 

Ten Things in Four (Actually Three) Months by Colleen van Nieuwkerk

 

Photo by Colleen van Nieuwkerk

Fall is my favorite season. I always loved the beginning of a new year of school, whether that was for me, or for my children as they were growing up. My years in church ministry also felt the same as the summer break ended and a new focus for the next year was usually presented.

And now, in retirement, especially this particular fall, I seem to have several projects that need completion.

This theme has proven to be appropriate.

1. I try to read my Bible every day, and I love to read in Chronological Order—God’s Big Story which shows me my story within it. This year I am reading in The Bible Recap which is in Chronological Order with a short write-up to explain the Scripture passage for that day. My desire is to complete this by December 31. It has been good, and I have been encouraged and convicted as I have read new insights.

2. My first step in fall is usually to set up my Planner and Journal for the next year. As it happens, I have not done this yet for August 2026 to July 2027. Life has hurried by and so this is a priority as there are family and personal events and projects to track.

3. Since 2015, I have been creating, writing and teaching a course for women, Heart2Heart: Strength and Dignity. I have written a Full Course with five units, and then a singular, year-long course for each of those units. This year I am completing the final singular course as I write and teach it. There are many details involved in this ministry but the next step I hope to complete before the New Year is to begin to create a coiled workbook for each of those units. This will simplify the process of teaching in future years.

4. I have the opportunity to teach a weekend overview as an introduction/ refresher to Heart2Heart in November. This will require the opposite of writing and expanding units, instead taking the basics and reducing the information while keeping it relevant. The Full Course is intense with Bible and Book reading besides projects. The Unit Courses are less intense but include Bible and Book studies. This new cohort will be retreat-style.

5. My manuscript for my Memoir: An Unfolding Life, Giving My “Yes” to Jesus is presently in  formatting and will be published before Christmas. I have published articles previously, but never a book. The privilege of launching the book and inviting people to purchase it is my fifth project.

6. Since entering widowhood in 2019 my blog has basically been dormant. The Memoir and Heart2Heart are interconnected, and so the business side of writing for both includes creating a landing page for the book, setting up Substack or the blog space to reach more women, and social media to go alongside. This will take time.

7. I also have a family and we enjoy “hanging out.” Family dinners. Birthdays. Christmas. Grandchildren dates are all important.

8. Extended family time is also good. A wedding in southern Alberta will involve a thirteen-hour trip one way on Thanksgiving weekend.

9. My office space is a nightmare right now, and I never seem to have enough time to finish off organizing it like my plan says. Anyone else have that issue? I am the Family Historian/Scrapbooker and a Writer so the paperwork never ends. If you have any tips about how you do this, I would love to hear them.

10. Life is full. I also suffer with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue which means some days no project work is done. My life is quiet these days, and I am so thankful for the privilege of having these assignments God has given me. In reality, as long as I can dream, think, write, and type, I have something to do. I also love to crochet, and even color sometimes, to justify my television watching in the evenings. I am blessed.

Thanks for the invitation to give you a glimpse into my quiet and not-so-quiet life. My motto is “stay in the day” and “just do the next right thing”. I loved reading your posts about this as well—blessings as you walk through fall and into the winter season.

Colleen van Nieuwkerk is GG to three sons plus 3; twelve grandchildren; and two great-grandsons. She loves to read and enjoys reading to the littles in the family as well as gifting books to them. Colleen writes curriculum for women as well as teaches and is currently writing the story in book form of how this all came about. She lives in northern Alberta and can be found online @colleenvannieuwkerk.com