Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

by Alicia Britt Chole

Life does not sleep—though in winter she retracts all advertisement. And when she does so, she is conserving and preparing for the future.

But such is the rhythm of spiritual life: new growth, fruitfulness, transition, rest . . . new growth, fruitfulness, transition, rest. Abundance may make us feel more productive, but perhaps emptiness has greater power to strengthen our souls.

However, when we state our desire to “be like Jesus,” we are not referring to Jesus’ anonymous years. “I want to walk like Jesus walked and live like Jesus lived!” is generally not equated in our hearts with, “I want to live 90 percent of my life in absolute obscurity!”

Jesus’ character and authority come with Jesus’ life, 90 percent of which was lived in quiet anonymity.

However, with his life (and with ours), it is critical that we not mistake unseen for unimportant.

From God’s perspective, anonymous seasons are sacred spaces. They are quite literally formative; to be rested in, not rushed through—and most definitely never to be regretted.

“I feel that trials do not prepare us for what’s to come as much as they reveal what we’ve done with our lives up to this point.”

In other words, trials tell us less about our future than they do about our past. Why? Because the decisions we make in difficult places today are greatly the product of decisions we made in the unseen places of our yesterdays.

But the momentum of his past choices will create resistance as Doug tries to head in a new, healthier direction for his second half of life.

“I feel that trials do not prepare us for what’s to come as much as they reveal what we’ve done with our lives up to this point.”

Because the strongest influences on the decisions Jesus made in the desert were the choices he had been making before the desert. In hidden places over hidden years, Jesus’ choices clustered and created momentum that is revealed through the decisions he made in his public ministry.

Main is not behind us. Nor is main way out ahead of us. To our God, this course—call it transition, further studies, unexpected illness, financial crisis, grief, or a desert—is as full of potential as any course ever has been and any course ever will be. Every course—and certainly every day—is a gift from God. (Enjoy it while it’s hot.)

But in anonymous seasons we must hold tightly to the truth that no doubt strengthened Jesus throughout his hidden years: Father God is neither care-less nor cause-less with how he spends our lives. When he calls a soul simultaneously to greatness and obscurity, the fruit—if we wait for it—can change the world.

Leaving his hometown, Jesus’ steps must have been filled with thought. He apparently traveled alone those thirty to sixty miles from Nazareth to somewhere along the Jordan River. Historically, he walked from the scorned to the significant. Spiritually, he journeyed from anonymity into global renown.

Hidden years, when heeded, empower a soul to patiently trust God with their press releases. All that waiting actually grants us the strength to wait a little longer and not rush God’s plans for our lives.

God sounded his affirmation from above over Jesus’ life before Jesus ever preached one sermon or enlightened one mind, before Jesus ever healed one body or saved one soul.

Jesus’ choices during the temptation open that window and grant us a view of his previous hidden years because the choices we make in the place of trial today are greatly the fruit of choices we have made in our yesterdays.

We also witnessed Jesus’ willingness to follow God wherever he led. Surrendering to hidden years enabled Jesus (and can enable us) to desire, above all, God’s company and not be distracted by life’s scenery.

And here is where Satan’s lures can be deceptive. This layer was not about what Jesus would eat as much as it was about when Jesus would eat. Would he obey Father God even when obedience required delayed satisfaction of legitimate needs?

Being powerless revealed what was in their hearts: would they, or would they not, obey God? From Father God’s perspective, utter dependence, not self-reliance, is the true friend of our souls.

Before we, like Jesus, can position our roaring desires behind truth, we first have to distinguish our roaring desires from truth, and that is no minor task. Most of us have been quite successfully conditioned to determine truth through the filter of our feelings: Do we feel it? Then it is true. Or so we are told.

Victory over temptation was not on hold, waiting for Jesus’ feeling of hunger to vaporize in the desert heat. Instead, victory was waiting for Jesus to reposition his felt appetite behind God’s eternal will. That is not mere wordplay. It is a trustworthy strategy for not succumbing to temptation in the layer of appetite.

In the daily rhythm of anonymous seasons, it can become exceedingly difficult to remember that every choice we make today influences a tomorrow we cannot see.

we discover that hidden

years also provide an environment in which we can develop a healthy portrait of ourselves.

That strength can be ours. It develops in seasons of anonymity as we fix our spiritual eyes on the God who can never forget our name.

Over hidden years, Jesus decided that Father always knows best, that God’s ways are perfect, and that he is never, ever late.

What grows in anonymous seasons? A disciplined imagination.

What is under investigation here is our vain imaginations—those thought patterns that puff us up from the inside out or invite us to escape from reality and experience a more affirming existence in our minds.

The principle we examined in layer one (when tempted by the immediate gratification of our appetites) is still true in layer two (when tempted in our thoughts by the attention and awe of mankind): we will reap what we sow, even in our minds (see Galatians 6:7–8).

After spending decades developing a taste for mankind’s attention and awe, I had finally realized it was not nutritious for my soul. Man’s praise is like cotton candy—sugar-laden and insubstantial. For my spiritual health, I had to make a change. Though that change was good for me, it took years before it tasted good to me.

On an unnamed mountain peak, Satan made a business proposition to Jesus. The goods were weighty, but the exchange would be private. No one but Jesus and Satan would know the transaction’s terms, at least no one on earth.

It is likely that Satan would have reneged on his promise. He is the deceiver and though this world was his to give would he really give it up after he got what he wanted?

Satan’s offer was real but shortsighted. He tempted Jesus to give up his soul permanently to gain the world temporarily. He offered Jesus his off-brand imitation of glory from the world and forgot that Jesus already possessed the original from heaven. In essence, Satan asked Jesus to trade the eternal for the visible, which is something he still invites us to do every day.

Certainly the people were familiar, as we are, with this possession-based form of authority. And they obviously were familiar, as we are, with position-based authority. Yet Jesus’ authority was still a mystery to them because it was not derived from worldly possessions: lay before him the treasure of the Magi or strip from him his only tunic; his authority remained unchanged. Nor was Jesus’ authority derived from earthly positions: crown him King or dismiss him as a criminal; his authority remained unchanged. Jesus’ authority flowed not from possessions or positions but from submission. What was the surprising source of Jesus’ authority? Submission to his Father’s will and Word.

it is worth our time to examine the warning signs of souls that delight in position but no longer live in submission to God’s will and Word.

When our goal shifts from growing to not failing, something has become off-center in our lives.

The encouraging news for the hidden-again is that the amazing, awakening, startling authority of Jesus in us never retires and never resigns. Titles and positions were its servant, not its source.

Thinking of him (and countless others who have served faithfully for decades and now feel justifiably forgotten) causes me to question whether we applaud in each other what Jesus applauds in us. Perhaps we give applause too easily, and perhaps we strip it away too quickly.

For Jesus in the desert, and for us throughout our lifetimes, there is really only one true temptation in our spiritual lives: to choose against God. Satan’s sole goal is to somehow invite

Has it ever felt as though God

poured his kingly dreams all over you but left the crown at home?! We are not the first to have God-given but unfulfilled dreams simmer in our souls during hidden years.

A close cousin of impatience, resentment is really mumbling in a tuxedo.

physically, busyness often poses as an imposter for self-discipline.