Where personality and grace meet.
Are our personalities fixed, or do they change? If who we are is locked up in our personal view of ourselves and the world around us, what about the obvious or not so obvious imperfections? The Enneagram may very well help in the identification, but our identity is found in someone infinitely perfect and outside of ourselves.
I recently sat with my mother overlooking the sea and while chatting with her about life and relationships she brought up the subject of personality typology and showed me a book1 she had bought on the subject.
The Enneagram.
The typology which we were talking about and one which I had not heard of before is called the ‘Enneagram’ (any-uh-gram). This system identifies nine enneatypes (core personalities) based on the basic or predominant way each personality type emotionally experiences and interacts with the world around them. Each enneatype is not who you are but what you habitually and consistently do.
Essentially the premise of the Enneagram is that within our personality patterns there is a single core dominant tendency or fundamental weakness which is the driving force in everything we do. Not only that but this core tendency brings out other elements of our personalities (either positive or negative) in times of stress or when we are feeling secure.
The dominant tendency alone does not define a personality. It’s just one of the many factors that combine to make people who they are. This dominant tendency is, in fact, both your best friend and your worst enemy. It is the primary way of coping with life’s challenges, developed in childhood and hardened over time. And it does not always serve your best interests.
Susan Reynolds, The Everything® Enneagram Book (Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2007), 34.
Identifying and understanding our enneatype can then help us make changes to our lives in aid of developing a healthy balanced personality, foster better interpersonal communication and build stronger relationships.
Identification.
After taking the book’s test and identifying my defined enneatype, I started thinking about the dynamic between my current personality with its positives and negatives and the process of sanctification2.
As Christians (and I do not mean of merely conveniently inherited religious tradition, but of the inconvenient3 yet infinitely rewarding4 affection that Jesus is God and our greatest desire); we not only believe that God changes our attitudes, habits and emotions over time but we experience the dynamics of these changes on a daily basis. I will be discussing the experience of these dynamics in an upcoming article on integrity and hypocrisy, but for now I just want to focus on the dynamic between our present personalities as Christians: whether they can change, are changing and if so what is the agent involved in this change.
When personality hits the fan.
My enneatype is five (with a four wing), which in very brief summary means I am a head person and experience the world through the lens of knowledge. My energies are mainly focused on intellectualising experiences and relationships to understand the best course of action. I move head first and my emotions follow.
Fives are infatuated with their intelligence and take great pride in knowing more than others. They love nothing more then to withdraw into their extensive libraries to pour over books. The more planning they do or knowledge they collect, the happier they are before undertaking any new venture. Nothing gets them more excited or makes them feel safer than feeling like they have a firm and precise handle on how their life is going
Susan Reynolds, The Everything® Enneagram Book (Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2007) 151.
Simply put; I analyse everything and everyone out of the fear of making a mistake. The downside being that I generally end up contemplating and observing life more then actually living it. Also in the unfortunate event I do make a mistake, I retreat to solitude to beat myself up, contemplate my entire course of life up to the point of the mistake, the future ramifications of the mistake and then surround myself with books, lectures and sermons in effort to learn why the mistake happened and how not to make it again.
As you can imagine there are obvious positives in being head driven but if I was to pinpoint the negatives they would be that I am passively arrogant, default to solitude and feel I don’t need people.
Is personality changeable?
Reynolds states in her book that not only is change possible albeit limited, but the actual progression of change which she calls ‘self-actualization’ is the returning to ones ‘true self’5, that which we were before our early childhood environments influenced our development.
The pinnacle of self-actualization is an inspiring yet elusive goal that implores humans to reach the ultimate state of being—joyfully whole and detached from worldly concerns. The process of actualization is ongoing and consistently incomplete. Humans are always in state of flux, spiralling upward or downward in their quest for transformation. Perfection is a useful concept in terms of setting goals, and although humans can never fully attain absolute perfection, striving to become your best self is a worthy pursuit.
Susan Reynolds, The Everything® Enneagram Book (Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2007) 76.
Self-actualization is for Reynolds when one has conquered some-or-most of their fears, ego driven behaviour and are able to freely to express the full range of their personality. The most self-actualised personality is that of one who has confronted and conquered the events of their childhood which caused them to subvert, or obstruct their essence or true self.6
What I find interesting is that Reynolds links the ‘ultimate state of being’ with being ‘joyfully whole and detached from worldly concerns’. In my mind it makes sense when she says that absolute perfection is unattainable, mainly because to express ones full personality one has to be in relationship with other people in the world. The world is certainly not a perfect place and the only way someone can be fully detached from its concerns is either if it becomes perfect, or they remove themselves from it—which would unfortunately then negate the expression of their full personality.
According to ‘self-actualization’ we need to be detached from the imperfect, yet to express ones full personality we need to be in relationship with the perfect. Is there then no hope for us to be truly ourselves?
A Biblical perspective on change.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
ESV. Romans 8:20-23
What is interesting is that the Bible talks not only of the transformation of humans but also that of the world, the two are linked. Yet the agent of the change is not humans obtaining perfection within themselves but that outside themselves, the glory of God.7 The world then follows suit and obtains the glory of those who have already obtained the redemption of their bodies through the glory of God. Also there is an explanation as to why humans and the world are in the state of imperfection in the first place, that it was God who subjected them to it.8
There is another connection, it is the glory that provides freedom for both humans and the world; freedom and glory, the two are inseparable.
How does this change happen?
In explanation of the phrase ‘children of God’ in Romans 8; this is a reference to all those who are led by God’s Spirit9. I point this out because again there is a type of Christianity which is merely academic, simply a religious or philosophical Christianity which is not God glorifying nor God’s glory receiving.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
ESV. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
According to the Bible we are, through beholding the glory of Jesus, being freed from decay and being changed into the likeness of him. This then continues until Jesus comes again and our bodies (including our minds) are redeemed completely into his glory. This progression ‘from one degree of glory to another’, from what I understand is directly tied to an ever increasing beholding of the glory of God. I understand this to mean then that when we see Jesus face to face, we will fully know him as we are fully known10 and thus be fully transformed into his likeness. We will be perfected.11
We are given an indication of what this increasing likeness looks like:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
ESV. Galations 5:22-23
Can we change?
According to Reynolds, no not fully:
...and although humans can never fully attain absolute perfection, striving to become your best self is a worthy pursuit.
Susan Reynolds, The Everything® Enneagram Book (Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2007) 76/76.
According to God, yes most certianly fully:
...beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
ESV. 2 Corinthians 3:18
The question is now whether you feel you need to change?
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
ESV. Romans 12:1-2
As Christians who have the Spirit of God working in them we are not only convicted12 of the need of change but also told that by doing so we will be able to discern what God’s will is, and what is good, acceptable and perfect.
Personally, I cannot think of anything better then knowing that throughout my life on earth I am, through looking at God’s revealed glory in the Gospel13, and in relationship with Jesus; being made perfect by his Spirit. That daily I am becoming more patient, kind, faithful, gentle, more self-controlled, joy-full and ultimately more loving. Not only that but I am promised that I will one day in a new redeemed body, mind and personality be perfect, and that the world will be conformed to the same glory and perfection.
This is then why we live; to glorify God for who he is, and what he has promised us—to be like him, to spend eternity with him and to be able to look into his face, the face of Jesus.
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Footnotes.
1 Reynolds, Susan. The Everything® Enneagram Book: Identify your type, gain insight into your personality, and find success in life, love, and business. Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2007.
2 “The act of God’s grace by which the affections of men are purified, or alienated from sin and the world, and exalted to a supreme love to God; also, the state of being thus purified or sanctified.” (Sanctification. 1913 Webster)
3 “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” ESV. Matthew 10:37-39
4 “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God; who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” ESV. Luke 18:29-30
5 “To review you are born with a true self that encompasses everything you possessed before your early childhood environment influenced your development.” (Susan Reynolds, The Everything® Enneagram Book (Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2007), 69.)
6 Reynolds, 80.
7 “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” ESV. 2 Corinthians 4:6
8 “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” ESV. Romans 8:21
9 “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” ESV. Romans 8:16
10 “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” ESV. 2 Corinthians 13:12
11 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” ESV. 2 Corinthians 3:18
12 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” ESV. John 16:7-11
13 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” ESV. John 3:16-17