Sometimes, there are books you instantly know you want to read, because they sound exactly like something you need or something you’re interested in. And then there are the other books that you decide to read for some other reason. John Starke’s The Secret Place of Thunder: Trading Our Need to Be Noticed for a Hidden Life with Christ was one of those “other” kinds of books.

Someone was currently reading it (maybe Russell Moore?), and I decided I wanted to read a book that didn’t have endorsements by anyone––no one! This seemed like an author that was actually practicing what his book was about.

Oh what a book!

I think there can be the tendency to think that this may not be a book for someone if they don’t struggle with the need to be seen by others––living a performative life. But, I think we all want to be seen––it just gets twisted when we need to be noticed by humans in order to feel that we have worth.

John invites us to slow down, consider Jesus, and look to a life that is lived in Christ instead of for others or for Jesus. Perhaps, a better way to say this would be living in community with Jesus and people. We are already loved and accepted by Jesus, so the need to perform for his attention and approval just isn’t there.

Highly recommend!

1. Going from a performative life to a hidden one with Christ can be lonely, confusing, and disorienting. It can be heartbreaking to discover how many of your relationships were transactional at work, online, and even at church when you begin, more and more, to break away from a life of performance (63).
2. We were created to live on the Father’s affirmation in Christ. Th affirmation of the world is a moving target, leaving us perpetually anxious and cultivating our insecurities, but the Father’s voice is stable and firm, forming us into resilient people (66).
3. If you are buried with Jesus, your future is as bright as the glorified Christ in heaven (67).
4. The call is to die not for Christ but with Christ. This truth makes all the difference. Christ does not need our death like we needed his (68).
5. Jesus teaches us that we were made for a life of love with him, and our abiding must never be optimized (117).
6. Jesus is pointing out that the substance of our spiritual life is that we are with him rather than what we are doing for him (119).
7. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that my anxiety, while a great motivator for productivity, is a hindrance to love (124).
8. Pruning feels like death, but it leads to life and fruitfulness (128).
9. If our sense of self-worth is based in our ability to demonstrate our impressive lives before others, we will resist Christ and resent the Father’s pruning hands (128).
10. The Father’s goal for your life is for you to be as joyful as the glorified Christ in heaven (131).
11. Sure, you can find him when your life feels like fireworks, but can you seek him when it feels like the lights are going out? (144)
12. His [Peter’s] forgiveness came from the cross, but his wholeness came from Jesus’ presence (146).
13. If you take anything away from this book, I pray that you learn to grow out of a performative life into one that is nonanxious enough to engage in these moments with a quiet, healing Jesus (146).
14. Sin and shame work most powerfully when unacknowledged and covered up. They are most dangerous in the dark. So Jesus uncovers them––gently, restoratively, like a friend working through reconciliation over breakfast (147).
15. May I suggest that our ability to grind it out longer than others might come more from our temperament or personality than from spiritual strength? (151)
16. Here’s the confidence those of us in Christ can have: Restoration and healing will have the last word about us (153).
17. We tend to identify ourselves either by our outward successes or by our humiliating failures because these outward displays of our competencies, beauty, achievements, taste, togetherness––or lack of these things––are where we feel most loved and accepted, or most judged and forgotten, by others (158).
18. This life of self-giving can happen only when we are vulnerable and known, first in secret with the Father and then in love with others (167).