Have you ever taken a test to determine your personality type? A lot of people have taken these tests, with one of the most common being the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (click this to link to the test). During the spiritual retreat and in Mulholland’s book, one of the pieces I found most interesting was his analysis of how your personality type, something he referred to as a creation gift, influenced your spirituality.
He made some great intiial points on type. First, no personality type is right or wrong. It is almost akin to being right or left handed, brown or blue eyed, etc- something you’re born with and which simply allows you to function in different ways. We’re tempted to think our type is the best one, but when we think more closely we see that the church needs all types to form a whole- we are many parts, but one body.
He goes beyond this thought though, and starts analyzing how your type influences your spiritual preferences. Someone who’s extraverted will probably tend to find more spiritual nourishment in corporate activities that involve a lot of speaking, e.g. a small group study. Someone who’s more introverted may find more enjoyment in private devotional time or silence. A person who’s a heavy thinker may enjoy digging deeply into theology texts while a feeler might prefer to talk with someone about their spiritual journey. The examples go on.
Perhaps the most intriguing part of this, though, is that there is a positive and negative side to all of this. In knowing our personality type and in finding spiritual expressions that link with that, we can nurture our own spirituality in a way that really works well for us. We can also help others find spiritual exercises that work well for them as opposed to simply prescribing what we like. At the same time, he discusses how this can sometimes lead to a neglect of the shadow side of our personality and spirituality. For instance, if we are introverted, we may focus on private devotional life to the exclusion of group exercises which then would cost both the group and the individual of each other’s insights. Also, a neglect of the shadow side can lead to specific temptation because these shadow sides will eventually call out for nurture and if it’s not given by the spiritual, they’ll find it in unhealthy activities. Again, examples would be a peson who is more of a thinker, in ignoring his feeling side, may be prone to outbursts of emotion and anger becuase he hasn’t dealt with that emotional side. Or a person who’s only nurtured their intuitive side may be susceptible to the dangers of sensuality if their sensing side is deprived of spiritual development.
I find this fascinating stuff. It really pushes me to think about all my sides. I’m a ENFJ so I want to take advantage of this knowledge to find spiritual exercises that nurture this- group study, regular disciplines, etc. At the same time, I need private devotional time. I need to dig into theology. I need to do some spontaneous things as well. I definitely feel this need and oftentimes I’ve found that my periods of greatest spiritual growth have come in such moments.
So what’s your personality type? Do you see this flow into your spiritual walk? What have you done to nurture both sides or what would you like to do in the future?
Tags: Invitation to a Journey, journey, MBTI, men, Mulholland, Myers-Briggs Personality Type Idicator, retreat, shadow side, spirituality