Category Archives: Bible Study

A Final Look at Anonymous

A Final Look at Anonymous

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:23-25).
 


Four and a half years worth of Bible study makes for some memories. Memories that include a whole lot of…

Homework.
Tuesday nights.
Fellowship.
Food.
Prayer.
Discussion.
Commitment.

Most importantly, memories that seed with a whole lot a Jesus. He, alone, is the one reason that keeps most of us coming back for more, study after study, year after year.

We’ve completed eleven different studies since my family’s arrival here almost five years ago. I knew before I arrived that God had clearly called me to facilitate the process. A couple of years prior, I had a head on collision with the power and transforming work of God’s Word. He profoundly interrupted my life with the truth of Scripture, and my hunger was palpable.


When I learned that we would be making another pastoral move, my heart welled with anticipation for the possibility of bringing God’s truth to others in a more tangible way. My zeal was well matched by a group of women who were hungry for the same. Together, we have laughed and cried and prayed our way through some difficult seasons. We’ve come to know and love Beth Moore, Nancy Leigh DeMoss, Jennifer Rothschild, and most recently, our precious Alicia Britt Chole.

I introduced Alicia to our group several weeks ago via her book Anonymous: Jesus’ Hidden Years and Yours. To say this study has been transformational in our lives, both corporately and individually, is to say too little, yet somehow tonight I struggle to find the right words. Alicia has given us the permission to celebrate our hidden years … to respect them, to embrace them, and to understand their sacred worth as it pertains to our intimacy with Jesus Christ.


I am forever marked by the truth of her study and by the time that I spent walking it with over fifty women. Jesus has been the overriding focus of our hearts these past seven weeks, and I finish this time with a rich fullness and deep thankfulness for all of my God-ordained seasons. Whether in the bloom of Spring, the heat of Summer, the stripping of Fall, or the barren of Winter, all seasons with the Father are served as the main course and are to be partaken of accordingly.

We have partaken, and our season of study has come to a close. Tuesday nights are free and clear for the fellowship hall of Pine Forest UMC … at least for a couple of months. We’ll be back. Friends and Jesus have a way of creating a hunger for more of the same. I, for one, can’t wait to reconvene with my sisters in January.


I love these women. As a pastor’s wife, it can sometimes be difficult to find your “home” in a place you never even imagined your feet would pause. These women have made it their mission to invite me into theirs. They are home for me, and even though we’ve closed shop temporarily, when January rolls around and the scent of Tuesday nights once again fills the air, I’ll be ready to break some holy bread around the table with my family. I won’t worry about them being available. They will be.

For they have learned, even as I have learned, that God is simply and profoundly…

too good to be neglected. He is worth our time and our best efforts at attending to the process of our sacred becoming.


So Tuesday night gals, I want you to know that I love you and that I would have missed a great deal had the Bishop not decided to send Preacher Billy and his family to you! You have shown me a side of heaven that is rarely glimpsed on this side of eternity. I carry you all in my heart, even as I know that you hold me close in yours. Doing life with Jesus alongside the likes of you has been one of the richest blessings my life has known.


Let us keep on doing it, and all the more, for as long as we pilgrim this road together. Until we meet again, whether here or there…

~elaine

Now, bloggie friends, I want to share a pitifully captured video from a portion of our final study with you. This visual is not great (we are still living in the age of a non-digital camcorder…my wish lish for Christmas has just increased) but I wanted you to at least hear my voice–no mocking of the southern accent please. Not because I have anything overly profound to say, but simply because it gives you a more complete picture of the writer of this blog. Please disregard my husband’s attempts at “fading” in and out, and pay close attention to my friend, Michelle, who is a professional interpreter for the deaf. At the end of her song, it fades, but then returns for a brief final look of my incredible Tuesday night gals. We made the tape for Alicia and is much better quality when viewing it as a DVD. Anyway, enough apologies. Enjoy the song.

Anonymous

“After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. … When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’ ‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he was saying to them.” (Luke 2:43, 48-50).

We all have them.

Hidden seasons.

Times in life when we feel closeted away in anonymity from the rest of world. Perhaps by choice. Perhaps by circumstance. Perhaps through the purposeful intent of another. Perhaps by God. Regardless of the reason behind our hidden estate, once there, it’s easy to find our lament for such a seemingly insignificant season. Rather than embracing the quiet and trust of hidden moments, we cry out for the noise and clamor of the stage.

I know. I’ve lived it. I’ve cried it, but rarely have I embraced it.

Jesus knew what it was to live in anonymity. He spent most of his life behind the shadows of a curtain that wouldn’t fully rise until he was thirty years of age. We only have a few snapshots of his early years. One of those photographs occurred at the temple when he was twelve years old.

The Gospel of Luke, chapter two, paints a master portrait of hide and seek.

One hiding…seeking his Divine.

One seeking…in search of her divinely Hidden.

Son seeking Father. Mother seeking Son, and at the end of the day, both discovering that hidden moments are often the occasion for God’s sacred shaping…for being about the business of the extraordinary rather than settling for the ordinary. It’s a discovery that I am learning.

It doesn’t always make sense to me…these past forty-two years of living that have walked more anonymous than not. There have been moments of clarity along the way—times when I’ve seen God’s hand in my hiddenness. But most days, I feel lost…unsure as to what I am supposed to be doing with it all—with these gifts and promises that I have been granted by the gracious grace of a Father’s love.

I want to relinquish my will to my daily portion, but so often my will cries out for something different. For more. For quicker access to the stage and for bigger accomplishments in God’s kingdom agenda. I want to bypass the shaping and get on with the fruit bearing. I want the harvest without the process of the seeding and the waiting. I want to be my Father’s go-to girl, but rarely do I get the green light.

This is the often and familiar ache of my heart. I have a hunch that some of you are feeling it also.

Good news.

Jesus perfectly understands such a hunger. He lived it.

Good news again.

Jesus has given us a window into understanding our hidden seasons by using the pen of a woman named Alicia Britt Chole to spotlight his.

A couple of years ago, I came across her book, Anonymous: Jesus’ Hidden Years and Yours. The title struck a deep chord within me, and I immediately ordered the book. Since then, I’ve read and re-read the book several times over. Imagine my joy when I learned that Alicia was adding a Bible study guide to her book along with DVD teaching segments! I received the news just about the time I was making a decision regarding our church’s upcoming Fall Bible study. Sight unseen, I ordered the study and am delighted to bring her heart’s stirring to my Tuesday night gals. We are on board to begin mid-September.

Alicia is one of the finest authors/speakers of our modern-day era. She doesn’t waste a word, and she doesn’t intend for us to stay as we are. She intends for us to draw deeper into our pondering and understanding of Jesus. She’s a genuine and passionate pursuer of the Truth. She makes me want to be a better…

Writer.
Thinker.
Mother.
Seeker.

She’s not the usual or the ordinary, although she would probably beg to differ. She’s better. She’s real, and that is why I am delighted to share in her ministry by telling you about her giftings.

A couple of weeks ago, Susan sent me a surprise in the mail. She had recently been at one of Alicia’s speaking engagements. She knew of my fondness for Alicia’s work and promptly purchased a copy of Anonymous for my collection. When Alicia commented to her that I already had the book, Susan simply said, “I know. I just think Elaine would love to have a signed copy.”

Guess what?

I do, and inside the book Alicia simply, yet beautifully challenges me to “Be still and grow.”

That, in essence, is the message of Anonymous. Being still in the silence and growing in the sacred shaping of a Savior. I love this study, friends. God has used Alicia’s tender obedience in penning her thoughts to change my perspective about my seasons of silence and anonymity. I will close by offering you a few of Alicia’s words…

“As with a child in the womb and a seed in the ground, God’s unanticipated move of hiding Jesus granted him protected, undisturbed room to be and become. 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. Unapplauded, but not unproductive: hidden years are the surprising birthplace of true spiritual greatness.”[i]

I hope that you will all take the time to visit Alicia at her website and blog. Her resource room is full of valuable materials and free downloads that are worthy of your every consideration. One disclaimer in the matter…

If you’re after fluff, take a pass. You won’t find it with Alicia. She’s after our transformation through the power of God’s Word and his abiding Spirit. It is what I am after, and I want it for you, too. Thus, for those who leave a comment on this post and on any others that follow this week, I will enter your name to win a copy of Alicia’s book. The winner will be announced on Monday.

As always,

~elaine

[i] Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous (Franklin: Integrity Publishers, 2006), 13.

PS: If you live in the area and are interested in participating in our Tuesday night study, please feel free to e-mail me. And just in case you didn’t know how I am feeling about my family’s return from Bolivia…

 


Didn’t they do a fine job at guest blogging? I may be out of a job! Thank you for your many kind and heart-felt comments. You are the best blogging friends ever! Shalom.
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