A COUPLE OF YEARS BACK I BOUGHT A LITTLE BOOK TITLED, Embracing Obscurity. The subtitle sums it up. Becoming Nothing In Light of God’s Everything. The book is well written. To be consistent with his premise the author’s name is “Anonymous.” Feeling in need of this book’s message, a few weeks ago, I picked it up again. Judy and I are now reading it for our nightly devotions.

The presenting facts motivating the re-read is our recent move to Moscow, Idaho. We moved to get out of the State of Washington, to be close to family, but still be close to Spokane. We are a ten minute walk from our Son, Joe, and his family. We are 90 minutes from Spokane.

Judy and I now find ourselves wrestling with the thesis of this book. After spending fifty-three years in Spokane, WA, we moved to Moscow in our mid seventies. We raised our five children in Spokane. For twenty-five years I ran a successful business in Spokane. Two sisters and a widowed sister in law live in Spokane. Two of our five children and eight grandchildren still live in Spokane. In addition, in 2002 I planted Grace Christian Fellowship in Spokane. Then in 2018 I retired and turned the church over to my son, my son-in-law, and other capable young men. We have a long history in Spokane.

Now here we are, starting over. The challenge we face is embracing obscurity, and we are “obscure.” No one knows us. They know nothing about us. We are strangers. We have no credibility with anyone. We are just new people in church, of which there are many, and to boot we are “old.” No one knows that we have five children all walking with God. No one knows anything about our Spokane history, or that I have six books in print. No one knows and no one cares. Very few ask us about ourselves, and although we are tempted to bring these facts up, we are constrained by this truth: God wants us to embrace obscurity. Our accomplishments cannot be our identity. Our identity must be in the Lord himself. In a few short years we will be dead and then our identity will definitely not be in what we have done or failed to do. It will be “Hi, I’m Bill Farley, and I am a child of God.”

I am not writing this to make you feel sorry for us. We are thankful. This blog is a celebration. Our circumstances are a God-designed opportunity to grow us in humility. It is an opportunity to clothe ourselves in Christlike lowliness. To be content with obscurity the way Christ was content with obscurity.

Obscure Christ

Think about the craziness of God. He doesn’t do things as we would. The One who spoke the universe into existence came as a helpless infant to a poor, illiterate, Jewish couple living in Nazareth, a small Palestinian village. Palestine was the Appalaicha of the first century world, and this is the town Jesus chose to grow up in. Could anything be more incongruous? He could have been born in Rome. It was the power center of his day. All the important people lived there. Instead, the King of Kings chose the obscurity of Nazareth.

Jesus didn’t boast in his divinity. He didn’t go around hinting that he was God. No, he put all that behind him. Instead, he followed his step-father, Joseph, into the carpentry business. He was so normal that no one in his social circle suspected his real identity. That is why when he entered his ministry the people that knew him didn’t believe in him. “Is not this the carpenters son,” (Matthew 13:55) the people of Nazareth asked? “Not even his brothers believed in him” (John 7:5). How do you hide your identity from your siblings? His family saw him at work in his minstry and said, “He is out of his mind!” (Mark 3:21). Here is a ruthless pursuit of obscurity.

Even when he entered his ministry in the power of the Spirit, he seemed determined to hide his true identity. He healed the leper then told that man, “See that you say nothing to anyone” (Matthew 8:4). This was typical. He did not want to attract people to himself. His mission to save the world was a secret.

Jesus, the most important and influential man who ever lived died in total shame and obscurity, naked on a cross, abandoned by all but a handful of women. And that was no accident. It was God’s plan! He pursued obscurity.

So What?

Christians are Christ followers. This means we should be like him. We also should seek obscurity, not notoriety. Our mission is faithfulness. If faithfulness means obscurity, so be it. If faithfulness means popularity and fame, so be it. The goal however, is faithfulness. The goal is obedience, pointing everyone away from ourselves to Christ, not popularity or notoriety.

When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:8–11).

There is a strong desire in each of us to snatch the seat of honor before someone else does, but if we yield to that temptation, God will resist us. We don’t want to exalt self. We don’t want God resisting us. We want Christ to exalt us. That means seeking the lowest place.

I met a man at church today. He is the principal of a Christian High School. I had heard that he had been in the Army special forces. “What did you do before you got into education,” I asked?

“I was in the army,” he said simply. He didn’t mention that he had been a Green Beret for twenty years. That’s following Jesus. That’s what it means to embrach obscurity. That’s what it means to seek the lowest place. That’s what it means to have one’s identity in Christ.

But as everyone reading this knows, this is difficult. Everything in our flesh drives us towards self-exaltation, self-promotion, self-adulation. As my wife often admits, “When I’m honest with myself, I’m willing to admit that all I really want is to be worshipped.” It takes great integrity to be this honest.

We wrestle with this temptation daily. It’s a battle. So, when you think of us, give thanks to God. Pray that we will seek the lowest place. God has designed our circumstances. We are in a good place. We need to be humbled. The humble place is the safe place. The humble place is the God-honoring place. The humble place is ultimatley the happy place.

“He that humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11). Be sure to read Embracing Obscurity. You will be profoundly convicted, but I don’t think you will be disappointed.