Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

Maybe it's because spiritual growth and vibrant faith in God don't happen in isolation, but under pressure.

Just because something is hard doesn't mean it's impossible.

Remember: The pain isn't the enemy. Pain is the indicator that brokenness exists. Pain is the reminder that the real enemy is trying to take us out and bring us down by keeping us stuck in broken places. Pain is the gift that motivates us to fight with brave tenacity and fierce determination knowing there's healing on the other side.

The biblical way to be preserved is to be pressed. And being pressed can certainly feel like being crushed.

And we'd both agree this isn't how it should be. This life between two gardens is confusing and complicated. Dust is messy. We don't even like to touch dust, especially if it's made up of the shattered pieces of our own hearts.

Rejection has long ties pulling the pain of yesterday into the situations of today. What felt hopeless yesterday will feed a hopelessness into today unless we cut those ties.

People with a realistic view see rejections as a natural part of life and adjust accordingly. It

every great success story has elements of failure.

felt stuck with a suffocating sense of wanting to feel better but not knowing how. My brain has such a hard time overriding my heart sometimes. One rejection after another did quite a number on my heart. And each new rejection didn't just add hurt; it multiplied the pain that was already there. That accumulation created a dark feeling of hopeless defeat.

If our souls never ached with disappointments and disillusionments, we'd never fully admit and submit to our need for God. If we weren't ever shattered we'd never know the glorious touch of the Potter making something glorious out of dust, out of us.

Today's rejections, big or subtle, are like stealth bombs that zing straight to my core, locating hurts from my past and making them agonizingly present all over again.