Sometimes we don't let our problems go, and not only because we got used to living with them but also because of some "benefits" they have. It happens that:

• The problem is our shield. We protect ourselves with this shield from people, from their claims against us, from the responsibility that we are afraid to bear. The fear of responsibility can be stronger than a desire to be healed.

• Some people who were once rejected believe that no one will really take care of them.

They remember, for example, that in childhood when they were sick the family attended to them. But when they got well they were forgotten. That was kept in their minds and they are sure that when they are healed no one will take care of them, give an eye to them and pity them. They don't even imagine that God loves them in any of their condition even in a healthy one. Some people remember the pain they were inflicted in the past. Because of this they went into a shell and don’t let God's love to work in them in the future.

But if we cannot truly respond to God's love, then we cannot respond to human love!

If you were rejected by someone – remember that David was the most rejected in his large family. He was only one not called to the family feast, he was the last one to think about, his place was in a sheepfold. It was him who became the greatest chosen by God because he had turned his rejection towards God! He allowed God to heal his heart and turn the pain into the eagerness of intimacy with his own Heavenly Father! If he could - anyone can!

We don’t need to ascend to the same height as David did— no one can reach this level. But at our humble level, whatever we experience may be the point of departure for taking off into God's glorious presence.

When I helped in serving people who had survived different tragedies (both in Ukraine and in other countries), I have faced similar situations when a person who had survived the death of a loved one or another tragedy, betrayal, bore this pain like a banner. What do you expect, whether a song written in the Song of Songs can be fulfilled in our lives: «And His banner over me was love» if we hold the banner of pain and rejection over us? Can we hold the banner of love in the same hand? It will not work!

As in 1945 in Moscow, there was a Parade of Victory in the Second World War, where the banners of the Third Reich were thrown to the ground. It is also a banner of our pain and rejection, a banner of our pride in our special tragedy, a banner of people's misunderstanding of our pain, we should throw it on the Calvary - at the feet of the crucified Messiah.

Don’t take this as another spiritual spell. This is the way out! A practical measure that allows our dear Father to draw us out of troubles!