In Chapter 9 (“Go Lower”) of One Thousand Gifts, author Ann Voskamp comments on the paradoxical nature of humility:
“The moment I try to grasp for humility, she’s gone. Speak of humility, shine a light shaft on it, and she’s shadow-gone in the dark. . . . If I focus on humility, I look inward to assess if I’m sufficiently humble, and in the very act, humility darts and I’m proud, self-focused. It doesn’t work. But what humbles like an extravagant gift?”
The author adds that a quiet song of thanksgiving bring our humility because we must bend our knees and our hands must lie vulnerably open to accept whatever gifts God chooses to give us. Ann says that is like riding the undulating ocean waves- the wave of grace cresting in joy, then plunging lower in humble thankfulness, only to rise even higher in grace.
This concept is significant when adversity has left us parched and dry. It is at that point, Ann emphasizes, that we must go lower with the water- which always seeks the lowest places- and kneel in thanksgiving. Ann concludes: “The river of joy flows down to the lowest places.”
