Humility is Shy

"I used to think that God's gifts were on shelves one above the other, and that the taller we grew in Christian character the easier we should reach them. I find now that God's gifts are on shelves one beneath the other, and that it is not a question of growing taller but of stooping lower, and that we have to go down, always down, to get His best gifts."  G. B. F. Hallock

"Humility isn't burden or humiliation of oppressive wight, but the only posture that can receive the wondrous grace-gifts of God - God who humbled Himself and came to the feed trough . .  The moment I try to grasp for humility, she's gone, Speak of humility, shine a light shaft on her, and she's shadow-gone in the dark. 'Humility is so shy,' writes Tim Keller. 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...The quiet song of gratitude, eucharisteo, lures humility out of the shadows because to receive a gift, the knees must bend humble and the hand must lie vulnerably open and the will must bow to accept whatever the Giver chooses to give. "

excerpt from  one thousand gifts devotional by Ann Voskamp