“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

―    C.S. Lewis,    Mere Christianity

I often talk about how uncomfortable it is when we challenge ourselves to be open to change.  And they always say that you remember the really good times in your life….and the very bad.  I also have talked about how most life lessons I had to learn the hard way.  I think when we’re young we only see life through our own lense and the perspective is just that, it’s only our perspective.  I remember many, many times that I was on the receiving end of a really tough life lesson.  One that I had to swallow every ounce of pride I had and wade through it….or my option was to turn around and go back the other way because I gave up.  And I can tell you, I didn’t turn around very often.

I shared the story the other day about a time a few years ago when I was serving as a General Manager at a hotel and had a local college student ask if they could do an interview with me to get my opinion on the one characteristic that I felt was most important in being a leader.  I told them that I thought the one trait that truly held the key to success was humility.  I shared several examples of why I believed that to be so, what I didn’t have time to convey to them was that I felt that way because I had lived it first hand.  I told them that humility means being coachable, being willing to learn.  Humility helps keep your mind and spirit eager, open to hearing new and different things primarily because people will share more of their view of the world if they know you are open to receive that.  How many people in leadership roles have we all known who are so closed off from others around them that their management style is one-sided, doesn’t really grow in depth over time and almost feels abusive?  I have worked for several of those during the course of my career.  And took an oath that I never wanted that to be me.  That is not saying that I am not opinionated or passionate about the things I believe in.  It is to say that I try very hard to appreciate everyone’s perspective knowing at the end of the day that I will filter through all that and come to the best conclusion I can using all the information at hand.

If God shows up and wants to knock down some walls to help my “living space” look more like a palace then I had better be sure to be ready and open to receive that.