About a month back, I entered The Alpha And The Omega in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. Today, Amazon announced the novels that would proceed to the second round of judging.
And The Alpha And The Omega didn’t make the cut.
So why am I blogging about it? Because rejection is an integral part of being a writer. For more than two decades, I’ve received a slew of rejection letters from magazine editors, agents, and book publishers. And each and every one of them smarted.
And today, when I realized my name wasn’t on the list of authors progressing to the writing contest’s second round, it likewise stung. But I was surprised to feel another new reaction creeping into my psyche:
“I’ll show them.”
It wasn’t a vindictive sentiment. Quite the opposite, it was triumphant. I’ll show those judges that they missed a staggering opportunity by passing on my novel. I’ll show those agents. I’ll show those publishers. And if the entire literary world somehow overlooks The Alpha And The Omega, I’ll kindly point out their mistake with my next novel. Or the novel after that. Or the novel after that…
I’ll never embrace rejection. But I think I’ve finally learned how to gain strength from it.
God is the Alpha and Omega in the salvation of men, but that in no way imepils that men do not freely choose whether to submit to the grace of God in the Gospel. God forces no man to love Him, but as with Adam, gives him the choice, to obey or reject the glorious Good News. Man cannot boast in his decision because God opened his eyes and God gives faith to believe, but the choice remains for him to make.