An Announcement - and a Prayer for When You're Rejected

Aug 08, 2022

Having trouble viewing this? Click here to view this email in your browser
If someone forwarded this to you, and you want to subscribe, please click here. If you found me via the 30 Prayers Ebook, keep reading to learn more!

A Big Announcement!
Beauty Abounds
August 8, 2022

A Big Announcement

Dear ,

Happy Monday, friends!

If you’re new around here, you probably found me through the 30 Prayers For When You Feel Lonely and Left Out Ebook. I write about belonging, identity, loneliness, culture, feeling like an outsider, faith, and finding beauty in this broken yet beautiful world. I’m so happy you’re here as part of this community and we can journey through these issues together.

Sometimes, something you’ve been working toward for years comes to fruition.

I am honored and thrilled to announce that I have signed a contract to write my first book! This book is about a topic near and dear to my heart: ethnic loneliness. I’m beyond grateful for this opportunity, and it is a dream come true.

Here I am signing the contract:

This work requires deep and intense soul work in the months ahead, and much time writing, reading, researching, and thinking. It isn’t easy, but it is immensely rewarding.

My sincere hope and prayer is that this work will be a source of hope, healing, and goodness for you. If you’ve experienced feeling left out, feel in the middle, or on the sidelines, you’ll be able to relate, too. The good news is that we’re not alone, and that hope exists.

Additionally, I am deeply grateful for you. Thank you to all who have believed in me through the years, for being with me, supporting me, and for your friendship and encouragement. I think of you as words bleed now from the pen on the page (or as I type). I hope that this book will serve you well.

The release date is 2024, and in the meantime, I’ll be sharing regular updates of my publishing journey right here in this newsletter with you all, dear readers; the ups and downs of the writing and publishing journey, as well as the other regular encouragements and links for you. This is content just for you (subscribers), and not content I will share on social media. Your prayers and continued reading of this newsletter fuel me and help keep me going.

Thank you for being here and for being part of this journey with me. This dream was born years ago, and I am humbled and overwhelmed by this opportunity now, for such a time as this.

Do you have a dream burning and sizzling within you? Here’s to those dreams coming true for you, too.

(Image source: Pexels)

A Prayer For When You Feel Rejected

Celebrating something momentous as writing a book is pretty amazing. But there is a backstory. It didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen without a great deal of hard work leading up to this point. It didn’t happen without rejection.

So far, I’ve experienced over 25 rejections of my work since January 2022 alone, for various pieces of writing that I’ve tried to send out in the world, in a smattering of different places. And 25 isn’t really too many, to be honest—people try for years, with hundreds of rejections—for their books or other writing. This is particularly true for novels, but it is also true for essayists, poets, and other writers.

Before others were rejecting me, however, the astounding thing I discovered one day is that I was already rejecting myself. Here are some of the statements I used to tell myself:

"No one will want to read what I have to say.”
”It’s all been said before. What can I even add to this conversation?”
”I’m not famous. Who would anyone want to read what I write?”
”Am I even a good writer?”
”Can I call myself a writer if I’m not published?”

Maybe some of these statements are familiar to you, too.

The truth is, we do have something unique and valuable to add to the story being written in this world. There is no one like you. No one can see life from your particular perspective. God made you and put you here for a purpose: to share your story, to give, to work, to love, to be, to serve in some way, to contribute to this conversation of life we’re all participating in. What is it you are going to say?

Sometimes, those statements still hover nearby, and threaten to taunt and haunt me. I learned, and have to remind myself, that those rejections do not define me. Those rejections do not change the truth of my message. I can’t allow the rejections to dictate my journey, though I can learn from them.

Rejection, though it isn’t easy, and still hurts, has taught me new things about myself. I learned more about my work, and where it can improve. I learned what parts of my message were resonating with other people. It is a continuous learning process.

If you believe in your message and your story, don’t give up. Rejection is part of the journey. We only see the end results of published, polished books or of other successes; we can’t readily see the years of rejections and toil that birthed that book into the world for us to enjoy or any other kind of particular success. In most cases, years of hard work was the foundation of the success we visibly see.

And though I’ve been talking mostly about books, or other kinds of projects or work, this applies to relationships, too. That is an entirely different discussion, but the truth still applies: rejections from other people don’t define us, either. Our value and worth is derived from God. He defines us. He declares us worthy and beautiful. He declares us into being and defines that as good. It doesn’t take the sting and pain away, and rejection will continue to be part of our lives, but rejections do not dictate our journey with other people, either. We will continuously be hurt and rejected, but none of that will change who we are and God’s love for us.

With that in mind, below I share a prayer to help us pray when we feel rejected, excerpted from my 30 Prayers eBook:

A Prayer for When You Feel Rejected:

Dear Lord, it’s a hard feeling to be rejected, to be looked over, and passed on. I want to be involved and included, but instead I find myself on the outskirts, while I watch others living a dream and enjoying parts of life I also wanted. I’m struggling with self-doubt, when it feels as if others are noticed, and I am not. God, I know you see me. Thank you for giving me life in this world, and for your purpose for me. Help me, God, to be genuinely happy for others and help me focus on new dreams and plans. I trust that something better lies ahead even though it wasn’t the way I envisioned it would be.

Thank you that you are El Roi, the God who sees.

Note: if you have not yet received the eBook, 30 Prayers for When You Feel Lonely and Left Out, you can click here and download this prayer resource as my free gift to you for subscribing to this newsletter.

(Image source: Pexels)

On the Bookshelf

Here are some titles I’m currently reading or recently finished:

Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
See no Stranger by Valarie Kaur
The Life We’re Looking For by Andy Crouch
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

I’m struck by this phrase in Valarie Kaur’s book, See No Stranger: “You are part of me I do not yet know”.

I want to say that when I see you.

I want you to say that when you see me.

We are all deeply longing to be known, to be seen, by our fellow human beings. If only we could say this to each stranger and person we meet, no matter what they look like or sound like. Can we imagine a world like that?

The best book, by far, that I have read recently is called Everything Sad is Untrue, by Daniel Nayeri. It is memoir, but it is genre-bending, and absolutely masterful. I am recommending this book left and right. It’s about an Iranian refugee who ends up in Oklahoma, and it’s told in a unique braiding of memory and myth.

I was captivated by the storytelling from page one. I first listened on Audible, as the author narrated, and loved it so much I bought a copy. I also bought a copy to give away as a gift. This book is going on my list of top books I’ve ever read. It’s not often I think of adding a newly published book to that list, to consider it for the top 10 or 20. But, for me, it was THAT GOOD. This title continues to rack up prizes and accolades (unsurprising), and I also think this book will be taught in creative writing courses.

What books have knocked your socks off lately? I’m especially looking for a really good novel to get lost in. What do you recommend?

We all want to belong. Sometimes belonging feels elusive, especially if you feel like me, in the middle, in in-between spaces.

But the truth is, you do belong. You matter. You aren't alone in this world which seeks to wedge all sorts of differences among us.

If you're walking in those in-between spaces, remember you belong to the One who created you. There is One who sees you, loves, and whispers in your ear, you belong, and you matter. (Click the photo above to watch the short reel.)

, it would make my day to hear from you. Hit reply and let me know what beauty you’re witnessing around you. If you’re making your way through the 30 Prayers for When You Feel Lonely and Left Out eBook, I’d love to hear how that’s going, too.

Until next time, remember beauty abounds.

Warmly,
Prasanta

Thank you for being here! If this is your first newsletter from me, you probably subscribed from my website, signed up for the prayer Ebook, for a giveaway, my Chai Recipe, or other resource. I’ll share helpful links, resources, and inspiration regularly. If this newsletter encouraged you in some way, would you consider sharing with a friend? (Make sure you check your spam folder and move this email to your inbox!)

Until next time, make it a lovely one,
Prasanta

Visit my website!

Let’s Connect on Social Media

Belonging and the Human Experience

Discussion about this post