Honest Book Review--anonymous by Alicia Britt Chole
**Find out how to win a free copy of anonymous: Jesus’ hidden years and yours by Alicia Britt Chole at the end of this post**
Have you ever gone through a season where you felt anonymous? Unseen and completely unknown? Where all of the things, people, or tasks that made you feel important, significant, or needed, were stripped away, leaving you naked and unmoored, drifting, and worst of all no one even seemed to notice?
Maybe you were the confidant and best friend that was replaced and you feel lonely.
Or maybe you’ve been unexpectedly pushed out of a job that made you feel like you knew exactly where you fit in the world and you’re left wondering where to go and what to do now.
Perhaps an illness has turned your life upside down and forced you from your usual rhythms into an unfamiliar and unwelcome dance of less—less energy and less desire to do the things you previously did with joy and abandon.
Do you find yourself in a season where less is the word of the month, year, or decade? Less influence, less requests for your expertise and skills, less resources and resilience. Has life crowded out space for everything except one thing—anonymity?
Then my second installment of the Honest Book Review is especially for you. The book is called anonymous: Jesus’ hidden years and yours by Alicia Britt Chole. My copy is dog-eared and highlighted like a two-year-old’s coloring book. Every page holds treasured truths that cut deep into the tender spot that longs for fulfillment and significance in anything and everything but Jesus. If I were stranded on a desert island I’d want to have this book for what would, no doubt, be an anonymous season! Alicia’s wise words are so profound and insightful (not to mention poetic and beautiful). You won’t find a single platitude or empty phrase anywhere in this book, and if you find yourself in an anonymous season of life it’s a must-read!
Click here to buy a copy on Amazon.
Usually obscurity is nothing that we plan for—or that we welcome. Chances are it chose you—not the other way around. And it might hurt (it probably does—a lot). You might feel angry, and limited, and fenced in, or like you’re missing out.
And sometimes we do plan for it, but we vastly underestimate its impact, and don’t fully grasp the implications.That was how my anonymous season began; planned—but vastly underestimated.
It was called parenthood.
In the book, Alicia says:
“Hidden years are uncelebrated years. These are the seasons when we feel underestimated, unappreciated, or even invisible. In other words, no one is clapping. In that silence, unsupported by rounds of applause, hidden years provide the opportunity for us to wrestle with what truly makes us significant.” (pg. 114)
Could there be a better definition of hidden years than parenthood? Unappreciated? Check. Invisible? Uncelebrated? Check. Check. My anonymous season commenced with the birth of my son and was sealed by the birth, twenty-one short months later, of my daughter. I know there are plenty of people who continue to move through life after having kids with nary a blip on their radar.
I was not one of them.
Having kids changed everything: my routines, my priorities, my whole life. As Will Smith sang in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song: "my life got flipped, turned upside down."
The baby and toddler years were a real struggle for me.
I joke frequently that we were lucky to have survived babydom (yep, I'm making up words)—but it’s not really a joke—I mean it! My soul didn’t thrive on endless piles of laundry, nap schedules, and early morning/late night feedings and diaper changes. And yet, I knew it was where I was meant to be and what I needed to be doing.
But that didn’t make it easy.
There were days when I literally slumped down on the floor, cradling my colicky daughter, and beat my head against the wooden foot board of my bed, wondering why my heart always craved more--more time in the “real world,” more time with grown-ups, more books that didn’t have huge pictures and primary colors filling their pages. I longed for something so completely other than the season that I was in, when honestly that season was one I had been working towards my whole life.
I think the toughest part was feeling like I was missing out on something--like life was passing me by while I lived this life that I wasn’t so sure about. I wondered if all of my giftings would lie forever dormant and unused, or if I’d ever see those things resurrected.
Alicia nailed the way I felt with these words:
“Jesus’ true strength was not revealed in his ability to teach and lead the multitudes. It was manifested in his willingness to make himself nothing, to suffer, and to die. I had enough strength to exhaust myself studying, mentoring, and teaching, but I did not possess sufficient strength to be nothing.” (pg. 141)
That was it. I didn't have the strength to be nothing, or at least what I perceived to be nothing. Because the fruit of what I did on a day-to-day basis as a mom to two little ones was completely unseen and felt largely insignificant. I felt insignificant.
But God was building a foundation—in me and my kids. And that’s really what Alicia reminds us of: anonymous seasons are about foundations. The solid, unglamorous basics. They're about making sure that whatever God wants to do in us and through us is strong enough to last. God's not concerned with a quick build--he's in it for the long haul. And she shows us that we're in good company in those overlooked seasons. Someone else lived 90 percent of his life that way too: Jesus. (p. 10) I can't think of anything more encouraging than that!
With that said, I don't have a magic pill or a quick fix to teleport you out of an anonymous season Star Trek stye. It's painful, grueling work to embrace hiddenness and the work that Jesus does in us when no one is looking or cares. What I can tell you is Alicia's book is a great place to go for hope and wisdom from someone who has walked the anonymous path--and trod it well.
**You can enter to win a copy of anonymous by signing up to receive blog updates via email by clicking the button at the bottom of the page on the blog (if you already subscribe--you're already entered!). P.S. You get bonus entries for sharing the post on Facebook too :)** The winner will be drawn on Monday, August 29th, 2016.
~Gut-Check and Action Steps~
Are you in an anonymous season right now? Do you feel overlooked or invisible?
In what ways does it encourage you to know that Jesus also lived so much of his life in anonymity?
How can you embrace the hiddenness of this season and the work that God is doing?