There have been many changes in my life since I came on the staff of North Phoenix Baptist Church three years ago. My hair has calmed down. I have learned how to speak more slowly when I teach. I now have an office instead of a flourescently-lit cubicle. I got married. I shifted from a PC to a Mac. I graduated from seminary. I started Twittering (much to the chagrin of some people like my wife and Danny Estavillo, who repeatedly ask me “who in the world cares about what you are doing right now?”).

But one of the biggest changes in me has been that I have become more teachable. I am not saying this out of my own observation, but because it has been the observation of others. There are still some people that I struggle to be open to learning from. I believe some of those places and people will be different over time; some I think are going to remain difficult places for some time.

This shift has been life-changing. It led to our Joshua Generation series at Crash, my blog series on the generation gap, and my recent sermon on fear and hope. I realized that the value of being teachable is paramount. Someone once told me that when I stopped learning, I would start dying. That’s one of the reasons why I read and read and read. Why I seek out older men and women formally and informally as mentors. Why I read blogs, listen to podcasts, and attend conferences. That’s why I went to seminary and why I will pursue a doctorate one day. I want to go further faster by leveraging the experience of other people to engage my calling with excellence, passion, and integrity.

Those who I meet and know who aren’t teachable, in the most general of senses, are often those who are working through difficult and painful seasons. The struggle is when those people decide that it is easier to be bitter, angry, and moan, than it is to forgive, let go and begin to lead again. Tony Blair, former prime minister of the UK, said, “You can’t moan and lead at the same time.”

As I have become more teachable, I have found that I moan less and look for solutions more. I am all for deconstructing what is not working and taking a long hard look at what’s wrong, but I must never forget the challenge of leading and reconstruction after this. When I wasn’t teachable, I reveled in the deconstruction. Now, I see too much work to do to spend too much time there.

Where are you becoming more open, more teachable? How is that transforming your life?

-Scott