The Plumbline

Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, you’d find me in a minute—you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you. (Psalm 139:7-12) Useless. Unsatisfactory. Not measuring up. One of the "darkest" places to be is in the place of rejection. There we find the individual actually believing they have no purpose in our lives - discarded by those who should accept them, oftentimes refusing to accept them and what they bring into their lives. One of the toughest things to learn to do with people who treat others as though they are "rejects" in this earth is to NOT reject them because of their "actions" of intolerance or super...

He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!   ( Isaiah 53:3-4   NLT ) What does it mean to be despised? It means that we have more than a little "bad feeling" toward someone - it carries the idea of feelings of deep contempt - finding the individual or their actions so disdainful that we simply cannot tolerate them. To look at someone with disdain is to regard them or their actions as 'unworthy' of our focus or attention. There have definitely been times people have looked down their nose at me, or brushed me off as though my opinion or idea didn't matter - they just didn't see me as "worthy" of their focus or attention. To couple this with such feeling of ...

One of the "darkest" places to be is in the place of rejection.  By the very nature of rejecting someone, the one being rejected is being said to be useless or unsatisfactory.  They have no purpose in our lives - therefore, we discard them, refusing to accept them and what they bring into our lives.  One of the toughest things to learn to do with people who treat others as though they are "rejects" in this earth is to NOT reject them because of their "actions" of intolerance or judgment!  It is only natural to want to reject those who hurt others, abuse us, or treat some as though their sins are too great.  It is also a very dangerous place to tread - because we move into a place of judge in their lives - a place ONLY God can occupy.  Today, I don't want to focus on the one who rejects so much as on the one who has been rejected. The place of darkness this rejection creates in the lives of those who suffer at the hands of those who reject them is almos...