A hidden life in the era of social media can still change history, as the story of Jesus shows

"In that case, maybe the spiritual instruction you need emerges in the famous final lines of George Eliot's 1871 novel Middlemarch: the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

"A life might be hidden a heresy in the social media era, where everything exists to be shared yet still well lived. You can shape the course of history, even if you leave little trace on it. This strange idea takes on added significance for me at Christmas. The story of Jesus' birth is nothing if not unhistoric in the sense of being ignored even if today we live in the wake of his influence."

"Early Christians reasoned that if God became a baby in Christ, then God, in a sense, shows up in every vulnerable life, and in extremes of distress and suffering (crucifixion, Jesus' ghastly end, made a point of that). Discussing research for his 2019 novel Damascus, Christos Tsiolkias glimpsed the staggering implications of this idea: God is not in the noble Olympian heights. God is not in the palaces. God is actually the man or the woman you step over."

Many Gen Z aspire to be influencers for money and fame, yet meaningful influence can arise from hidden, unpublicized lives. A conviction holds that the growing good of the world depends on unhistoric acts and on people who lived faithfully in obscurity. A humble, disregarded birth can launch far-reaching historical effects, with the divine understood to appear among the vulnerable and marginal. The juxtaposition with social-media culture shows that visibility is not synonymous with significance. Faithful, unseen service, small acts of care, and unnoticed endurance can collectively shape history and make the world better.

Read at www.theguardian.com