Alicia Britt Chole > Quotes

“In seasons of hiddenness our sense of value is disrupted, stripped of what "others" affirmed us to be. In this season God intends to give us an unshakable identity in Him, that no amount of adoration nor rejection can alter.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' Hidden Years ... and Yours

“Jesus appears to have walked unstressed and unhurried. His peaceful pace seems to imply that he measured himself not by where he was going and how fast he could get there but by whom he was following and how closely they walked together.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

“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.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

“Christian spirituality, the contemplative life, is not about us. It is about God. The great weakness of American spirituality is that it is all about us: fulfilling our potential, getting the blessings of God, expanding our influence, finding our gifts, getting a handle on principles by which we can get an edge over the competition. The more there is of us, the less there is of God. —EUGENE PETERSON”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” —C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)3”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“In these early anonymous seasons, God graciously grants us the opportunity to wrestle with our appetites before other lives are at stake, to struggle with our passions privately before moral collapse affects the innocent publicly.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

“Lent is a much-needed mentor in an age obsessed with visible, measurable, manageable, and tweetable increase, for it invites us to walk with Jesus and His disciples through darker seasons that we would rather avoid: grief, conflict, misunderstanding, betrayal, restriction, rejection, and pain. Then Easter leads us in celebration of salvation as the stunningly satisfying fruit of Jesus’ sacred decrease.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“When He calls us to fast strength—when He drafts us into decrease—God’s purposes are clear: Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. (Deuteronomy 8:2”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“The purpose of Lent is not to force on us a few formal obligations, but to ‘soften’ our heart so that it may open itself to the realities of the spirit, to experience the hidden ‘thirst and hunger’ for communion with God.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“Patience grows well in such soil. She is the ally of a soul that makes God its primary pursuit,”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

“Regret empties anticipation, flattens dreams, and suffocates hope, because regret is a form of self-punishment. Whereas hindsight helps us learn from the past, regret beats us up with the past. So for one entire day (or go for forty), I invite you to fast regret. Do not feed it. Do not give it space. Let it go: God’s mercies are “new every morning” (Lamentations 3:23). And meditate on Jesus’ glorious promise from Revelation 21:5: “I am making everything new!”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“Like a short spoon in a tall glass, people’s attention simply cannot reach the bottom of our profound longing to be valued. Only God can reach that place because he is the One who created that place.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

“Deserts unclutter the soul. The hot desert sun vaporizes all manner of luxuries. Then the cold, shelterless nights expose the essential guts of life. I needed to eat, to sleep, to be protected, and to not be alone. Lent had come half a year early. God asked me to fast mental and physical strength. He invited me into holy weakness. I found Jesus there.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“Holy gets angry. So does this mean we need to buy ropes and start making whips? No. But perhaps we need to stop hiding safely behind hashtag campaigns and instead show up and speak out.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“There must have been a problem, we offer. God must have something even better around the corner, we propose. Must He? Here, then is my Lenten plea for the day: let the mourning mourn. Grant those who grieve the dignity to ask questions. Bestow upon the bewildered permission to not edit their honesty. Crucifixion is, after all, serious work.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“Jesus lived a truly uncluttered life and died a focused, eternally fruitful death. How I long to follow His example.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“We weaken—not strengthen—our faith when we silence sincere questions. Faith in Christ is not an airy substance that rests on unquestioning souls. Biblical faith is muscular, thickened more through trials than ease.[2] To strengthen our faith in God, we need to be honest when we are disillusioned with God.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, The Night Is Normal: A Guide through Spiritual Pain

“Our generation no longer capitalizes truth; we keep it small so that we do not offend. And so, we cheer one another on to “find your own [small t] truth,” unconstrained by history, logic, or even evidence. Because, after all . . . who really knows?”
― Alicia Britt Chole, The Night Is Normal: A Guide through Spiritual Pain

“No matter how we rationalize, God will sometimes seem unfair from the perspective of a person trapped in time. . . . Not until history has run its course will we understand how ‘all things work together for good.’ Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.” — PHILIP YANCEY”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“Outcome does not get to retroactively judge obedience.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, The Night Is Normal: A Guide Through Spiritual Pain

“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.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

“The question asked is not, ‘What should be happening in my life?’ but ‘What is happening in my life?’ The present moment, the present set of circumstances, the present relationships in our lives—this is where God lives. This is where God meets us and gives us life.” — ALICE FRYLING”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“When we are disillusioned, we too must resist isolation. Even in loss—especially in loss—we are stronger together than alone.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, The Night Is Normal: A Guide through Spiritual Pain

“The Father’s work in us does not sleep—though in spiritual winters he retracts all advertisement. And when he does so, he is purifying our faith, strengthening our character, conserving our energy, and preparing us for the future. The sleepy days of winter hide us so that seductive days of summer will not ruin us.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

“When those pauses extend beyond what we can comprehend or explain (say, for instance, three days), we often spiral into selfdoubt or second-guessing. 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.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, Anonymous: Jesus' hidden years...and yours

“The glorious mystery is that listening for God holds power whether or not anything is heard.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, The Sacred Slow: A Holy Departure from Fast Faith

“more of a sojourn. A sojourn is a “temporary stay at a place.”4 And a “stay” is about presence, not productivity.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“On the cross, leadership dies. On the cross, success dies. On the cross, skills die, and excellence dies. All of my strengths—nailed to the cross. All of my weaknesses—nailed to the cross. All of my yearnings for bigger and better, for anything other than Christ himself—nailed to that same cross.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“the disciples’ illusions of what Jesus could and should do with His power were shattered by the reality of what Jesus actually did with His power, and their personal illusions of commitment-unto-death were shattered by the reality of fear-inspired self-protection.”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.

“Regret empties anticipation, flattens dreams, and suffocates hope, because regret is a form of self-punishment. Whereas hindsight helps us learn from the past, regret beats us up with the past. So for one entire day (or go for forty), I invite you to fast regret. Do not feed it. Do not give it space. Let it go: God’s mercies are “new every morning”
― Alicia Britt Chole, 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.