Hidden Agendas: Dropping the Masks that Keep Us Apart
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
We like to pretend that hidden agendas are just for self-important bosses or egotistical politicians, but we all have them. Deep down, we all have a secret plan for getting from where we are to where we want to be, even if we refuse to admit it to ourselves.
And if our hidden agendas aren’t enough, we wear masks to obscure the truth even more. We put on these masks-like religion, appearance, power, politics, or protection-to drive our agendas. But all of this leaves us feeling phony, ashamed, guilty, and afraid. It’s killing us and hurting those we love. But for most of us, it will be a cold day in a hot place before we will be fully honest with anyone else.
There is so much more to life than hiding, pretending, and never being loved. In fact, there is already one person who sees behind the masks we wear and the hidden agendas that drive us. It does no good to tell God that you’re sick when you’re drunk, that you love him when you don’t, or that you didn’t steal and eat an apple (with apple juice dripping down your chin). God always recognizes and loves the you behind the mask.
So what can we do about the hidden agendas we have and the masks we wear? How can we gather the courage to be real? Being real has to start with your relationship with your heavenly Father. God already knows you inside and out. But God doesn’t know you in order to out you to your friends. His unconditional love for his own is reason we can pray to our Father without fear of rejection or judgment. Knowing God’s love, knowing that your heavenly Father is for you not against you is the only reason to give up your masks and develop the type of authentic relationships you never thought you could have.
Hidden Agendas helps you be honest to yourself using God’s love and core Christian values. It will startle you with profound gospel quotes and help you look to God’s love to see the truth.
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- Exposes the universal presence of hidden agendas and masks
- Reveals the negative consequences of hiding and pretending in relationships
- Offers a path to authentic relationships through an understanding of God’s unconditional love
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Halloween Horror
- Chapter 2: Ugly in a Nudist Colony
- Chapter 3: I’ve Gotta Be Me
- Chapter 4: The Devil’s Trinity
- Chapter 5: Names for the Nameless
- Chapter 6: Dead Men (and Women) Do Tell Tales
- Chapter 7: Gotcha!
- Chapter 8: When Doctrine Sings the “Hallelujah Chorus”
- Chapter 9: When Hitting a Wall Feels Good
- Chapter 10: Therefore
- Chapter 11: Family Secrets
- Chapter 12: A New Kind of Family
- Chapter 13: Masks and Mission
- Chapter 14: I’m Glad You Asked
- Endnotes
The most authentic, wise people are the ones most aware of how phony and foolish they can be. Not only is Steve Brown at the top of that heap, but in this book he pulls his readers right up there with him. This book will really and truly help you understand what it means to find the real and true you, the one God knows and loves, despite all.
—Eric Metaxas, New York Times Bestselling Author; host of the nationally syndicated Eric Metaxas Show
Steve Brown is like a heart-palpitating roller coaster ride that disrupts your equilibrium, spins your head in circles, and when you are finished you beg to get back in line to do it again. I love his curmudgeonly humor and his holy honesty, but even more I love his fierce passion for Jesus. This wild and woolly book will call you further into the holy light of what it means to let your struggles and sin throw you into the lap of Jesus. Steve invites you to the banquet of freedom you weren’t sure existed. It does. Taste and see.
—Dan B. Allender, Professor of Counseling Psychology and Founding President, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology; author of God Loves Sex and Healing the Wounded Heart
Brokenness, transparency, and authenticity are the buzzwords that make books fly off the shelves. But, alas, the result is often forced authenticity without true intimacy. Steve Brown challenges our public personas with the authenticity that only grows as we rest beside still waters, allowing the Great Shepherd to restore our souls by giving him access to every nook and cranny of our lives and as he illumines us to see every nook and cranny of his love for us.
—Sharon A. Hersh, Professional counselor; adjunct professor; speaker; author of The Last Addiction