Article April 18, 2011 Issue

Feeling rejected? God has a plan for you

By Walter Rodgers

This is the season when many young people find themselves besieged with feelings of inadequacy or failure. They have run the gauntlet of high school, and perhaps failed to get accepted at the college of their choice. Others about to graduate from university may find the jobs they hoped for just aren’t there. Disappointment, discouragement, and defeat well up, following closely on the heels of that “We regret to inform you” letter.

The weight of rejection can fall like a sledgehammer, crushing a person’s sense of self-worth, especially when he or she sees friends going off to “better schools” or getting high-paying jobs straight out of college. But measuring our growth and success by the achievements of others is a bad game plan.  

Christian Science teaches that we each have our own individual passport to the fulfillment of God’s plan for us, though it requires patience, and demands that we begin by praying for ourselves instead of wishing for admittance to a specific college or employment with a big-name firm. Repeat: The plan is not yours or mine, but God’s, and every step along the way calls for spiritual progress, even if we can’t yet see the good that assuredly lies ahead of us.