Does the name, Phil Knight, ring a bell? I must admit, I didn’t know who he was until I saw him in a recent interview. During this interview he disclosed that up to the time he was 14 years old he was sure of becoming a big league baseball player. But his plans came to a crashing halt when he was cut from his high school baseball team.

Consequently, he ventured into track. This led him to the University of Oregon where he ran track for their legendary coach, Bill Bowerman. Their coach and athlete relationship evolved into a business partner relationship. Phil started importing shoes from Japan to help improve the way athletes run. In 1964 Phil and Bill started their company, which was formerly named Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1972 they began making their own shoes.[1]

While you might not know who Phil and Bill are, chances are that the current name of their company will not only ring a bell in your ears, but also ring loud like the sound of a gong or chimes of the clock of a cathedral. They are the cofounders of Nike. But how did they get to this point? What was the turning point that led Phil Knight to co-found a company that currently has 36000 employees globally, 7000 employees in Beaverton, Oregon, and a 2010 reported revenue of $19 billion?[2]

I suspect that hard work and best business practices were involved in their success. Notwithstanding, my focus is on what happened to Phil Knight as a teenager. He was rejected! He was cut from his high school baseball team. That rejection became his redirection. That was his turning point. Getting turned down from one sport turned him on to become a person considered the most powerful man in all sports.

Likewise, God uses rejection for a purpose; to redirect you to your purpose. When we are heading in the wrong direction, God utilizes rejection as the detour to reroute us in the right direction. Phil Knight did not let the rebuff from high school baseball slow him down; rather, he put on his running shoes and bolted in another direction. What initially looked like his rude awakening turned out to be his great awakening.

The rejection not only led him to be a successful businessman, it also led him to a legendary coach, mentor, friend and business partner. This is akin to how God uses rejection for you and me. He uses it to get us from the wrong people and wrong plans (often our plans) to the right people and right plans. His plans for our lives. Being rejected is not the end of your life; it’s just a means to an end for your life. And that end is your destiny.

If you get rejected, I encourage you to take a note from Phil knight’s response to being dismissed from his high school’s baseball team. Don’t cave in. Don’t despair. Don’t wallow in self pity asking questions like, “What’s wrong with me?” Ask the question, “What’s right for me?” And to answer this question, put on your “running shoes” and pursue other opportunities awaiting you.

You’ll never know what they are, who they are, or who he or she is until you get up from the floor adjacent to that closed and bolted door wired with an ADT alarm system, and move on with your life. People may tell you that you can’t be it, you can’t have it, or you can’t do it. But through Christ you can do all things. God will use their rejection to redirect you and help you realize that you can just do it; the right “it” for your life.

[1]Oprah, “Nike’s Phil Knight,” http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Nikes-Phil-Knight/1 (accessed April 27, 2011).

[2]Nike, http://www.nikebiz.com/company_overview/facts.html (accessed April 27, 2011).