Do Any and All for His Honor and Glory!

Knowing as much about what drives you is helpful as you find your place of service in this world. Over the years I have taken a huge number of tests that seek to determine my personality, strength areas, and weaknesses. I recently took one online that had 180 questions. It's called an Enneagram Evaluation. Here I am closing in on my 62nd year of sojourn here on earth and my profile is fairly consistent with those from back in the mid 1970's when I began my management work. The interesting thing about tests like this is that they typically show how one can take any personality type which accurately portrays who a person is, and then demonstrate how that dominant trait can be used in a positive and supportive way.

For instance, I scored high in perfectionism and while that can be a very negative trait if it is not focused and kept in balance, here is what the test said could be accomplished with this trait that most people think to be over the top. Well-adapted perfectionists have learned to be tolerant of themselves, and, consequently, tolerant of others. They have transcended petty fault-finding in themselves and others. They have discovered that their impulses are not inherently bad and they no longer repress their feelings inappropriately. They remain moral people and are often sought for guidance. They are known for their integrity and high principles, but are able to allow for differences in the ideals of others. The healthy perfectionist can be a strong force in community life because he or she will look to his conscience for guidance, rather than to personal gain or power.

Now I will tell you there are many more paragraphs dealing with the potential downside than this one that shows what can be done if a person becomes well adapted. Therefore, what would be my goal coming out of this analysis? To do my very best to meet the qualification of the well adapted. The second high category for me was what they called the Achiever. Reading about this would lead one to immediately think about what we call workaholics today. However, here again, a well adapted achiever has this profile. They have learned to get beyond the need for an external affirmation of their worth and to come to a personal acceptance of themselves including their limitations. They no longer need the applause of an audience and they learn to find gratification in committing themselves to someone or something outside themselves. Healthy performers are self-assured, have good social instincts and good relations with higher-ups, and an ambition to improve. Their natural enthusiasm and their ability to serve as role models make them excellent team players. Well-balanced performers have transcended their self-focused tendencies and their single-minded preoccupation with their projects They have learned to form close relationships for their own sake. They also have overcome any tendency to take credit not due them and to withhold credit due others. In accepting their own fundamental worth as persons, they no longer are so susceptible to envying the accomplishments of others.

The final category where I scored the highest was in the Boss or Challenger category. You might expect this since I have in the past led large complex organizations. Bosses can be good and bosses can be tyrants. My experience says almost nothing is worse than a really bad boss and even more so if a person has little inclination to have the tools to be a good boss. Here's what the test results said about those who have this instinct but are able to use it in a positive manner. Well adapted bosses are able to get beyond control and to place their considerable powers in the service of a goal or goals outside themselves. They retain their characteristic confidence, but have learned the virtue of restraint in exercising power. They are seen as deserving of the loyalty they inspire and, in this mode, they can excel at making a beneficial difference for large numbers of people. They have immense capacity for continuous pressure and follow-through on a project.

Here's a list of all of those they evaluate: 1) Perfectionist: principled, purposeful, self-controlled, and perfectionistic. 2) Helper: demonstrative, generous, people-pleasing, and possessive. 3) Achiever: adaptive, excelling, driven, and image-conscious. 4) Individualist: expressive, dramatic, self-absorbed, and temperamental. 5) Investigator: perceptive, innovative, secretive, and isolated. 6) Loyalist: engaging, responsible, anxious, and suspicious. 7) Enthusiast: spontaneous, versatile, distractible, and scattered. 8) Challenger: self-confident, decisive, willful, and confrontational. 9) Peacemaker: receptive, reassuring, agreeable, and complacent. I highlighted in blue the ones I scored the highest in. But I think you can see there is plenty of room for all kinds of folks in this world we live in. Know this: every one of these traits and inclinations can be used in a positive and productive way.

Now, I do hope you have read through all of this because I did have a purpose in sharing it. David in Psalm 139 invited God to search his heart and to know everything about him so that God could help him to change anything that was not pleasing to Him. You may be very strong in an area where it dominates your profile but the question is whether you have given yourself over to God and allowed Him to help in the proper use of every gift, talent, and ability to serve Him first, and become a source of honor to His great name. If I have been able in any way whatsoever to use what God has given to me in a way that pleases Him, it is only because of His help. Even after all these years, I, like the Apostle Paul, can assure you that I have not arrived yet in being all that God would have me to be, but agreeing with Paul, I continue to press on, to keep on working and striving to accomplish His purpose for my life. Okay. I know you expected a short one for Friday but I had no idea this is what you were going to get until 30 minutes ago when I sat down at the keyboard. Have a great Saturday and may God help us to honor Him by coming together in worship on Sunday. Until next week, may God bless and keep you and yours. Amen. ........More later.