Quote from Forum Archives on February 21, 2005, 1:36 pm

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

STANDING TALL #4/9
LOOKING UP OR LOOKING DOWN?
February 20, 2005

Text: Acts 9:19b-31

When I switched my Navy career from Unrestricted Line Officer to Chaplain
Corps, I took a reduction in rank. Because of the regulations involved I
had to resign my current Lieutenant commission completely and accept a
new commission into the Chaplain Corps. Because I had less than one year
pastoral experience, the highest rank I could be commissioned as a
Chaplain was Lieutenant Junior Grade, one rank below my previous rank.

“No matter,” I thought. “When a person enters service as a Chaplain, he
or she is also given one year’s constructive time, so in a year I will be
promoted to Lieutenant.” That was a reasonable thought given that the
promotion between Lieutenant Junior Grade and Lieutenant was virtually
automatic, and that I already had a proven track record with the Navy.

However, when the promotion lists came out the following year, my name
was not on it. I was shocked and immediately set out to verify the
information. All I was able to find out was that [a] my record had come
before the promotion board that year; in other words, I was not
overlooked; [b] I was not promoted; [c] no one I spoke with had any idea
why I would not have been promoted. I was devastated. I had mentally
prepared myself to serve as a Lieutenant Junior Grade for one year, but
two years was a bit more than I had bargained for. I was dazed, confused,
hurt, angered, and overwhelmed the day I discovered all this. My head was
hanging low that day.

I don’t normally expect God to speak to me through a fortune cookie
message. In fact, I can recall only one time when He did, and it was the
day I am talking about now. Since the Reserve Center was more than one
hundred miles away from my home, I would spend Friday night in Des Moines
on my Reserve training days. One of the places I frequently had supper
was the Chinese place in a mall food court. I ate there that night.
Saving my fortune cookie for dessert, I opened it up after my meal and
read this simple sentence: “Adversity will make you stronger.” I’m not
making this up!

The immediate meaning of the message struck me right there, but I did not
want to hear it or deal with it. I didn’t want adversity - who does? I
wanted my promotion! So I continued to wander around looking down -
sometimes literally but most of the time figuratively. I shrugged it off
to my fellow Reservists the next day, but it still hurt. The bitter
disappointments of rejection hurt, especially when they are beyond your
control. We are helpless to do anything about them.

As with a lot of things, life went on. I spent the extra year as a
Lieutenant Junior Grade; couldn’t do anything otherwise. My Reserve unit
Commanding Officer refused to let me wallow in self-pity, though - at
least not on Reserve training days. He knew that I had much more Navy
experience than a JG, so he continually gave me more challenging
assignments within the unit. He supported me and praised me every time I
successfully completed the jobs. The next time the promotion messages
were received from D.C., I was greatly relieved to find my name on the
list.

It wasn’t until three or four years later that God revealed the truth in
His “fortune cookie message” to me. Because of age and time in rank
restrictions, I had given up the possibility of returning to active duty.
At one training meeting, though, active duty Chaplain recruiters were
meeting with us. They explained some recent changes to the active duty
accession requirements. Suddenly, I discovered I was eligible. And in
that very moment, I realized that I would not have been eligible for
active duty had I been promoted that first year when I had expected to
be! I am still amazed by that. Back in 1988, not one person, myself
included, could give one reasonable explanation why I was not promoted on
schedule. Suddenly, in 1991, God made it rather clear. I was looking up
that day.

I wish that I could say that because of that experience every rejection
that I have known before or since has been made clear and obvious. I wish
that I could say that I no longer fear rejection or betrayal.
Unfortunately, I cannot say those things. I have still experienced
rejections I will probably never understand and still feel the sting of
hurt, and I will probably always fear situations in which the possibility
of rejection exists. So do you. For most of us mere mortals, the hurt of
rejection causes us to avoid it like a plague.

But even if the hurt and confusion of a betrayal or a rejection never
quite goes away, do you know that God has a victory planned for us in the
midst of it all? It’s true. God is still God, and whether we choose to
look up or to look down in the midst of rejection is our statement of
belief in the sovereignty of God. Notice I did NOT say that it is a
statement of the sovereignty of God - God is still sovereign no matter
what we believe. What I said is that it is a statement about our BELIEF
in the sovereignty of God. Betrayal hurts. Rejection hurts. Those are
solid human reasons to hang our heads and look down. Even when we are
betrayed or rejected, though, God is still King. Even when the reason for
a rejection is not made plain like it was for me fifteen years ago, God
is still in control. Those are solid spiritual reasons to lift our heads
and look up.

Acts 9 gives us our lesson on what to do when facing rejection. We find
Paul - actually, he’s still known as Saul here - returning to Jerusalem
following his miraculous conversion. Up in Damascus, Saul had been
preaching in the synagogues about Jesus. He was successful, as verse 23
tells us, “Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews
living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ.” In Jerusalem,
though, it was a different story. “He tried to join the disciples, but
they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a
disciple.”

Saul was rejected by the Jerusalem Christians. Who can blame them? That
was a big leap of faith to believe that Saul was a Christian convert.
Nevertheless, one among them, Barnabas, “took him and brought him to the
apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that
the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached
fearlessly in the name of Jesus.” As a result of Barnabas’s testimony,
the Jerusalem Christians took him in.

Barnabas is introduced to Bible readers in Acts 4:36-37. Barnabas wasn‘t
even his name then. “Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles
called Barnabas (which means Son of Encouragement), sold a field he owned
and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.” “Son of
Encouragement.” They really got that right.

The Biblical application that gets us looking up instead of looking down
when faced by betrayal or rejection is to be a Barnabas. Be an
encourager. “Wait a minute,” you observe. “Saul was rejected, not
Barnabas.” Yes, that’s entirely right. But what did Saul become as a
result of Barnabas’s encouragement? An encourager! Saul, later as Paul,
of course, encouraged Christian after Christian in church after church.
In person and in writing, Paul said “Rejoice in the Lord always!”

My Reserve unit Commanding Officer who did not give up on me did not
always have a smooth Navy career himself. But he used his experiences of
rejection to give encouragement to me as well as others. In turn,
whenever I encountered other Chaplains facing similar experiences, I
provided my encouragement and the benefits of my experience.

If you want to go through life looking down because of rejection, then
the one thing that you do not want to do is get involved with someone
else who needs encouragement. If you do that - if you become a Barnabas
for someone else needing a lift - then it won’t be long before you are
looking up. That is a Biblical application for standing tall against the
fear of rejection and betrayal.

“Well, preacher, isn’t that all stuff that’s too good to be true? I mean,
life’s hard. Are we supposed to just bounce around with our heads up all
the time no matter how hard it is? That’s not realistic.” You’re right on
a number of counts here. One, life is hard. I have experienced some
rejections that still hurt. I don’t think that some of them will ever go
away completely. You have some of those, too, I suspect.

Two, yes, I expect you to go around looking up in spite of the hurts,
hardships, and harshness of life. Now by “looking up,” I don’t mean that
pain doesn’t hurt. Pain, whether emotional or physical, hurts. Jesus
tells us that. What I mean by “looking up” refers to what I said earlier.
God is King; God is in control. When Christians look up during rejection,
betrayal, or any other fear, we express our belief that God is in
control.

Three, yes, that’s not realistic. In terms of human response and desire,
looking up during life’s hardships is not realistic. But we are not
talking about human response. We’re not talking about human strength.
We’re talking about God’s response and God’s strength. Indeed, it is
precisely because of God that we stand tall against the fear of rejection
and betrayal. What do I mean? What I mean is this: God alone gives us
intrinsic value and worth. Oh, it’s nice to have approval from your
spouse, your parents, your children, your friends, and on and on. I would
rather have approval than disapproval. We humans want affirmation. But
what if we don’t get it even though we should? Everyone’s parents should
love them, but that doesn’t always happen. Everyone should have friends
who never make fun of them or betray them, but that doesn’t always
happen. I should have been promoted, but I wasn’t. Does that mean that my
intrinsic value and worth has been taken away from me? It might, if my
response is to look down and forget about God. But remember, when we do
that, we are adopting the same world view as many others with whom we
disagree. On his radio program on Wednesday, February 16th, Peter Heck
responded to a letter in the Kokomo Tribune from a woman who suggested
that it is better to have an abortion than bring another “unwanted child”
into the world. In addition to other responses, Peter asked, “How does
being unwanted nullify a person’s intrinsic human value and worth?”
(Peter Heck, “The Peter Heck Show,” WIOU 1350 AM, February 16). In the
context of God the Creator, there is only one answer to his rhetorical
question. Being “unwanted” does not nullify a person’s intrinsic human
value and worth in the sight of God. That is why a fetus has intrinsic
value and worth. God created that child. That is why you have intrinsic
value and worth no matter who rejects or betrays you. God created you, so
look up.

This week’s bulletin journal provides some more details and Scripture
passages you can use to apply God’s lessons. Encourage others by being a
Barnabas. Got it? To stand tall against the fear of rejection and
betrayal, encourage others by being a Barnabas - who was like his Savior
and Lord, Jesus Christ. “Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and
Samaria enjoyed a time of peace. It was strengthened; and encouraged by
the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.”

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN