Imagine: You’re watching the news. A young woman in a courtroom, tears streaming down her face, publicly repents for breaking the law. True tears. Real remorse. A genuine desire to learn and grow from her mistakes. Your heart is moved by this rare public display of humility.
Then you check social media.
Maybe you shouldn’t have.
Instead of collective appreciation, you find a digital feeding frenzy—everyone trashing this woman, using her vulnerability as an opportunity to shame her. And it hits you:
This is why nobody wants to be humble anymore.
This is the story A.J. Swoboda shared with me to open our conversation. A.J. is a theologian, pastor, and author of the brilliant new book A Teachable Spirit (you should definitely read it—I loved it).
A.J. brings wisdom to our cultural moment where humility has become a liability. In our conversation, we explore how to cultivate teachability when vulnerability gets weaponized, why learning from people we disagree with feels so threatening, and why the early Christians were so radical precisely because they were learners.
One of my favourite new insights: A.J. unpacks how “humble” comes from the Latin humus, meaning dirt … “Humans are dirtbags that just breathe in the breath of God. That's all we are.” There’s something humourous and liberating about remembering what we actually are.
A.J. makes a compelling case that humility is actually strength, and that we practice teachability before we feel it—just like generosity or love. If you’re tired of a cultural moment where admitting ignorance feels dangerous and changing your mind feels like betrayal, this conversation offers a different way forward. It’s an invitation into what A.J. calls “the quiet strength of humility.”
You can learn more about A.J. at his website. I also highly recommend subscribing to his Substack, The Low-Level Theologian, and checking out Slow Theology, the podcast he cohosts with Nijay Gupta.
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