Sometimes in my more nostalgic moments, my mind drifts to my old college days and how I often wondered what the future would be like. The Book of Isaiah is known for predicting the future too, especially the coming of Christ. I often think about the descriptions of Jesus in the book of Isaiah and my old roommate Kevin Brubaker. He would quote Isaiah 53:3 saying that Jesus was not a comely man that we would esteem him, but He was despised and rejected by men. According to Isaiah, people would actually hide their faces from Him. Kevin would then add that he was he was similar to but different than Jesus in that he is not comely but despised and rejected by women! I laugh at it even now.

For many of us now, there is only one woman we want to be desired by ultimately. However, we still want to be thought of as attractive and desirable whether we are married or not. I know for some men it has not been something they have had to deal with. However, only a few of us are on the level of George Clooney and many of those men are still plagued with loneliness and insecurity. Even Richard Gere made Debra Winger cry during the filming of the loves scenes during An Officer and a Gentleman! How can that be for one’s ego? I am often thankful that I was never one of those men to the extent that many of them become very bitter and go around seeking affirmation long after their looks have left due to age or infirmity.

However, I like to think that feeling rejected by women is part of the Lord’s plan for our lives in teaching us something of how He feels and how to help others. Certainly, a person that is not a narcissist can more easily see the beauty in others and in the world around him. A man who has asked a woman for a date and been laughed at may more easily understand how God felt when Sarah laughed at His promise (Genesis 18:12). A man who made his dream ridiculed by a woman may better understand how Job felt when his wife told him that he was a fool for trusting in God, despite his losses (Job 2:9). In the book of Hosea, God even tells Hosea to go and marry a woman who is sure to reject him, to show God’s love for Israel! It does not mean it does not hurt, it does. God seems to be pretty at getting something meaningful from pain, though, He did from Jesus’ pain.

We can and should do the best we can with what we got. However, we need to cultivate the inner beauty that comes from being a man of value. Now I know that this sounds like a cop-out, but we need to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on God and not our problems. As we trust God with what we have been given, then God can increase it. A friend of mine from graduate school used to put it this way, “The Lord may have given you a bad voice for singing, well, give it back to Him!” I think that this is something we can apply here as well.

Ecclesiastes 3:11: He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

———————W.