Five. That’s the number of articles I wrote that were rejected by DesiringGod. They were very nice about it – their rejection emails were always encouraging, and thoughtfully accurate.

Despite their kind words, turns out I’m not a big fan of rejection (surprise, surprise). Each time I would say to myself, “Okay, this is the last time I’m going to be submitting to them.” And then I would find myself crafting another article, putting myself on the line again.

Why? Because I highly respected the site and toyed with the innate urge to be published on it. I would say it was a little God nudge.

Finally, on the sixth (and it was going to be my final attempt) attempt, I got a green light from the editors. My writing was going to be on DesiringGod!

Not only did God give me the opportunity to write, He also took my article places. That piece ended up with 30K social media shares. It was republished on FaithIt and For Every Mom and on the Spanish TGC. I was asked by the DesiringGod Co-founder to write for them again.

A few days later, I received an email from Randy Alcorn’s secretary. Evidently, Mr. Alcorn (whose books I own) had read my article and wanted to re-publish it. Whaaaat??

I know that saying, “It’s a God thing” is somewhat passe, but I do firmly believe that it was without-a-doubt something He orchestrated.

Here are my key takeaways from this little story:

1. When your work is rejected, it may feel like it’s the end of the world. But it’s not. Preach a little sermon to yourself that there’s a road ahead, specially carved out for you. Remember that God perfects that which concerns you. There ain’t many things better than perfect.
2. Your work isn’t you. The rejection of your work isn’t a rejection of you. Give yourself a second pep talk.
3. When you know God’s nudging you to keep going, don’t stop. We are created to bear fruit for God’s glory. Let’s put the brakes on our insecurity rather than our work. He didn’t give us a spirit of timidity, but of power.
4. If you define yourself by your success or your failure, you’re going to be constantly vacillating. We define ourselves not by what we accomplish but by what Christ has already accomplished for us on the Cross.
5. God is good. Sometimes, we see His goodness in the here and the now. Sometimes, it takes a while for the fog to clear and for us to discern His goodness. Sometimes, we may understand His goodness only in eternity. But He is good. All the time.

Click here to read my re-published piece on Randy Alcorn’s blog with his insights into the topic.

PS: I don’t usually write 5-point, sermony blog posts, so thanks for humoring me.