Discovering Humble Strength

Maria V. Gallagher reviews Kevin Vost's new book, a comprehensive treatment of the misunderstood virtue of humility.

“We’re number one!” was often my rallying cry when I was a young girl. Whether it was cheering for my hometown football team or encouraging my family, I was bound and determined to claim superiority for my tribe.

This also translated into a quest for the number-one academic ranking in my high school class. I was in a race to the top in a desperate attempt to prove my own self-worth.

During that time, I could have used the lessons the new book Humble Strength: The Eye-Opening Benefits of Humility provides. Author Kevin Vost has produced a work which offers a comprehensive treatment of a much-misunderstood virtue.

Vost shows how humility forms the basis of other virtues and helps us to combat various pesky sins.

The author quotes Fr. Catejan Mary da Bergamo, who once said, “In Paradise there is no Saint who was not humble.”

Humility is simply truth—particularly the truth of who we are before God. As Vost writes,

So, ironically, when we humble ourselves to remember our lowly origin and total dependence upon God for our existence, it opens us to the realization that he has called us to be his spiritually adopted children.

The miracle of our very existence is a great gift from God that should never be taken for granted. We can accomplish wondrous things through Him and the grace He lovingly provides to us.

Vost also provides plenty of examples of saints who lived out the virtue of humility. Take, for instance, the tremendous advocate for the poor, St. Martin de Porres, who lived from 1579 to 1639. Vost quotes St. John XXIII, who said that St. Martin “excused the faults of others. He forgave the bitterest injuries, convinced that he deserved much severer punishments on account of his own sins.”

I found Humble Strength particularly helpful in the practical tips it offers for growing in humility. Some of these include:

• Be willing to say ‘I don’t know,’ even if asked about something in which you’re considered an expert.
• Know yourself. Seek to know the truth about your own strengths and weaknesses by openness to feedback and criticism.
• Do not count yourself better or more entitled than anyone else.
• Give thanks to God for all He has given you and show gratitude to those people who do you a good turn.
• Let humility make you more prudent. Remember important lessons you’ve learned from the wise in the past so you too might act wisely in similar situations.

I struggle with humility every day. But reading Humble Strength has given me the courage to persevere, knowing that God is right by my side, cheering me on.

And He is, indeed, “Number One!”

Copyright 2022 Maria V. Gallagher
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