Anonymous: Jesus’s Hidden Years and Yours
Have you ever thought about the fact that 90% of Jesus’ life was spent in utter obscurity? The gospels record the details of only a few precious years of His life, but there were approximately 30 years that unobserved, unnoted, and certainly unsung. In her book, Anonymous, Alicia Britt Chole uses the anonymity of Jesus’ experience in the desert to illustrate the difficult process of growth in a barren place.
“People generally do not stand in line for a tour of our hidden years, which can be rather disheartening if we are in the habit of determining the value of our life’s seasons by ticket sales. Though unpopular, these hidden places are not unproductive; within them God houses the unglamorous guts of a truly fruitful existence. There in the poorly lit crawl spaces of life (transitions, prolonged waiting, new additions to the family, preparatory education, relocation, retirement, unexplainable loss, extended illness, irresolvable conflict, and all else that tends to hide us) God builds within us a sturdy support system for our souls.”
In His desert experience, Jesus faced three major temptations – the temptations of appetite, applause, and authority. Jesus could easily have succumbed to Satan’s suggestions, weakened as He was, but the decisions He had made in his previous 30 years led Him to make the right decisions when the moment really counted. Anonymous years seem so unvalued, but the lessons learned in them determine our future.
I could go on and on about this book, but here’s the greatest compliment I can give: this is the best book I have read in years. I am recommending this book to everyone I know, because not only are the spiritual insights worth the read, but Chole is a master writer. She slides deep truth into simple sentences. Although I love to read (and read very quickly), I took four months to read this book, so that I could truly apply what I was learning. When I bought the book, I wasn’t even in an “anonymous” situation, but over the past few months, I found the book to be more and more appropriate to my own life. You will not be sorry to invest in this book.
“People generally do not stand in line for a tour of our hidden years, which can be rather disheartening if we are in the habit of determining the value of our life’s seasons by ticket sales. Though unpopular, these hidden places are not unproductive; within them God houses the unglamorous guts of a truly fruitful existence. There in the poorly lit crawl spaces of life (transitions, prolonged waiting, new additions to the family, preparatory education, relocation, retirement, unexplainable loss, extended illness, irresolvable conflict, and all else that tends to hide us) God builds within us a sturdy support system for our souls.”
In His desert experience, Jesus faced three major temptations – the temptations of appetite, applause, and authority. Jesus could easily have succumbed to Satan’s suggestions, weakened as He was, but the decisions He had made in his previous 30 years led Him to make the right decisions when the moment really counted. Anonymous years seem so unvalued, but the lessons learned in them determine our future.
I could go on and on about this book, but here’s the greatest compliment I can give: this is the best book I have read in years. I am recommending this book to everyone I know, because not only are the spiritual insights worth the read, but Chole is a master writer. She slides deep truth into simple sentences. Although I love to read (and read very quickly), I took four months to read this book, so that I could truly apply what I was learning. When I bought the book, I wasn’t even in an “anonymous” situation, but over the past few months, I found the book to be more and more appropriate to my own life. You will not be sorry to invest in this book.