leadership – Rebekka Lien

I had a dream I was teaching a class and people were rolling their eyes or laughing at what I had to say even though it was my life story: God has made me unrejectable. I woke up crying. My heart was twingy.

Jesus claimed me before I was born. I was not planned, my dad was having an affair and my mom was in the angriest state of her life. I was in the womb.

I am reminded God chooses the unlikely.

He chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

So that it is not by human might or power but by spirit.

A warrior must overcome great challenges to become stable in her heart. Unmovable. Firm. Steady. Unrelenting.

Besides being an accident, I was moved from home to home, country to country. Later rejected by peers, by family. For some reason I never gave up. I wanted to live for my dream. I wanted something more out of life, I didn’t want to settle.

Institutions rejected me.

Or did not have the capacity to accept the wondrous, the extrordinary.

I chose to forgive because I have been forgiven.

Religion vomitted me out, church folks vomitted out.

I did not stay silent, I continued to speak up. I spoke up to supervisors at work, I spoke up to producers, I spoke up to professors, I spoke up to leaders.

I stood out, I got laughed at because of my unmatching stockings.

Then in the moments of rejection, I would feel His embrace “you are perfect, I made you perfectly”.

I became fearless, I became wild and free, carefree.

Because I knew whose I was.

So if you feel rejected, remember that it just means some people have no capacity for different things, for extraordinary. God created you perfectly.

It is all training so that when hundreds and thousands are against you, you will be able to stand for what you believe (with your heart unfettered by anger, bitterness and hate).

1. Refinement– through fire. Yes, through fire. You will have to walk through valleys and shadows others fear to walk through. You must be fearless because who you lead- they look to you. What do you do when dragons of life attack you with fiery flames!? Do you back down, or do you stand firm?

2. Judgement– Another type of refinement, you will get lots of criticisms and judgements. I got criticized by family, friends, strangers, co-workers. I still get misunderstood, but do I care? No, because I have a vision and I have refined the vision for the last 20 years through my life and experiences. If you can’t take one hit, you can’t continue being a leader. A leader is someone who stands in public and gets bananas thrown at them, but they keep walking with dignity. You must be a fearless lion. You might feel alone sometimes, but people with similar vision will fill that void.

3. Growth– Someone who is not growing is actually dying. Leaders go through burn out because they are not growing. You only have a certain amount of knowledge and wisdom, you must keep learning from other leaders. Don’t be too proud to keep learning! You must not just grow in finance or income, you must grow emotionally, spiritually, etc…as well!