Labels? Types? No. Just Tendencies.
What is your reaction when someone starts talking about personality types?
Maybe, like one of my best friends, you just cringe. You hate the idea of being labeled and stereotyped.
Or maybe, like me, you lap it all up! I love taking personality quizzes and feeling oh-so-understood. If I happen to discover I belong to one of the rarer types (I usually do), my I’m so special antennae perk right up!
Either attitude, however, can be used as a pretext for staying stuck in a rut.
We can use the idea that we belong to a ‘type’ as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy – an excuse for self-indulgence, and for allowing some of our more unfortunate attitudes or patterns of behaviour to keep us firmly in our beloved pigeonhole.
Or we can use our distaste for being stereotyped as a pretext for refusing to notice the said unfortunate attitudes and patterns, and for neglecting to do anything in order to correct them.
That’s why I thought it was important to pick up one of the threads from the previous article, and point out how we can best engage with The Four Tendencies, especially as Christians.
Their purpose is not to provide us with any sort of excuses for self-indulgence and artificial divisions, or opportunities for feeling superior to others. On the contrary, they bring us face to face with some uncomfortable truths about ourselves.
We really need that, because a lot of our natural inclinations (or tendencies), if left unnoticed, will probably continue to exercise a strong and often troublesome influence over our lives. However, if we acknowledge them, we become free to make the necessary changes. Only by bringing our tendencies out into the open can we bring them under submission to Christ.
Just as with all other aspects of our design as humans, God made no mistakes when He placed in us our natural inclinations. There is a need in the world for people who are curious, and for those who are cautious. For the no-nonsense types just as much as the nurturing ones. There is a need for people who are naturally compliant and for those with an innate tendency to disrupt the status quo. All of these can be found among Jesus’ followers, and He welcomes them, loves them, and works His purposes through them all.
Sometimes, in our walk as God’s children, making the right choice will mean having to override our natural tendencies. Other times, on the contrary, we will be called to put them to good use.
One thing is sure, though: in learning to deal with our instinctive reactions to expectations, we will be making good progress with that most necessary yet trickiest of virtues: self-control.
