Anonymous

In this transition time in my life I started a new women's bible study at my church called Anonymous by Alicia Britt Chole. It is excellent and offers incredible insight into questions like....

Are we there yet?

On the inside of her book she says: Most of us struggle if our dreams are delayed one year, let alone twenty or thirty! We find God's pauses perplexing - a waste of our potential. and when those pauses extend beyond what we can explain, we often spiral into self-doubt or second-guessing that leads to hasty decisions and spiritual discouragement.

But God views them differently, assures author Alicia Britt Chole. Just look at Jesus. He grew up as a relatively uncelebrated boy from an unroyal family in the unrespected town of an unliked region - yet this is precisely where God hid his His Son for His first three decades of life! And during those hidden years in Nazareth, God granted Jesus protected, undisturbed room to be and become, to grow and learn.

That's how hidden years can be for every one of us - if we can recognize their potential and realize that anonymous seasons are sacred spaces to be rested in, not rushed through - and most definitely never to be regretted. In hidden years, Father God is our only consistent audience. Others come and others go, but only He always sees...When no one else is interested in (let alone impressed by) our capabilities and dreams. God is still wholeheartedly with fatherly pride shouting His love over us.

I've had many seasons of being anonymous....when my preacher dad moved us four times from seventh to tenth grade during really crucial teenage years when you are supposed to be bonding and making a place for yourself; during stay-at-home mom years when I had throw up on me and could barely make it to the shower and adult conversation was a rare commodity and all my friends had "real jobs"; and now...I can sense that God is pulling me yet again to an anonymous time. Away from the spotlight of "Tea Lady" and into a time of being incognito. Where it is just God's approval that I crave and long for. Where I have the opportunity to watch my three boys grow into young men. Where they take center stage and mom becomes their biggest fan!

Anonymous makes sense out of those times in life when we feel that God is violating our rights...our right to be well-known, our right to be important, our right to be fulfilled. In our culture, celebrity and busyness have become diseases that are killing us. God is developing in us an unshakable identity. One that is based on our identity in Christ alone. It is in the spiritual desert where true character is forged and revealed.