However, the real problem is that the Joseph Principle is not true biblically. And as Western Christians suffering can mean anything from stubbing our toe or getting a bad parking spot to losing a child. This is the underlying assumption that like Joseph of Old Testament fame, if we have suffering, then it means that God is preparing us for something great in our future. Anything we can do to help bring attention to it, help think about it and help gain it as a spiritual discipline I think is worth doing.ДЇor me the biggest ah ha moment was his discussion of the Joseph Principle. Especially in anВ individualisticВ culture like ours. You canвЂ™t not read a book that someone buys for you when you sort of asked for it. But the desire to be serious enough about humility to write a book anonymously made me take notice.Д«ut it was the fact that В bought me a copy in response to this post that made me start reading it.

The major theme of Robert LuptonвЂ™s book Theirs Is The Kingdom, a book that was very influential to me in college and beyond, was gaining humility while ministering to the poor. Andrew Murray has one of the more famous (and now free) books on Humility. John Perkins has never expressly written about humility, but the whole focus of his life has been intentional downsizing for ministry. I generally liked CJ MahaneyвЂ™s bookВ (although given recent issues he may not be taking his own advice seriously). It is not that people canвЂ™t write books about humility. The author realized that writing a book about humility was in itself an un-humble activity so he (and I think it is pretty clearly a he) decided to write and publish a book secretly. His reviewВ gave a bit of the back story and resulted in the book being put on sale for a couple weeks at Amazon.ДЄn anonymous author decided to write a book about humility. I ran across the very interesting book Embracing Obscurity on Tim ChalliesвЂ™ blog. All undervalued and difficult disciplines in a world of individualism, social media and mixed messages. Takeaway: Obscurity, humility, smallness. I am reposting the review of this very good book because the Kindle version is on sale for $0.99В until Oct 7

Embracing obscurity