I finished Sacred Pathways, and wanted to record a few closing thoughts. I did take the tests in each chapter, despite not feeling very comfortable with them. In college we had to take the Meyers-Briggs and the MMPI, and they were hard for me too. Then a few years later I took the Meyers-Briggs again and got a different score. So I guess tests are good for a snapshot of where you happen to be at a certain moment in time.
There are other ways to break down the different spiritual tendencies, but for the most part I found this organization to be helpful. A few of them I had a hard time distinguishing, like the “traditionalist” (who loves symbol and ritual) and the “sensate” (who loves beauty). (My reading was even more full of interruptions than usual with this book. I’m looking forward to the discussion at book club.) And I wondered where “truth-speaker” fit in; under “activist,” I suppose, though prophets usually speak out of love for truth, whether or not it brings about social change.
On these, I ended up scoring the highest in the “Intellectual” temperament. Next came “Traditionalist,” with “Naturalist” and “Ascetic” coming in about a point apart in third place. It sounds basically right for where I am right now. I’ve been feeling sick of my intellectual side, though, and maybe it’s because that’s the only side of myself that I feed; I haven’t been doing anything to nourish my tendency toward these other “pathways.” Good thing to realize.
That said, I like Thomas’s reading lists in the intellectual chapter. Lots of good titles there that I haven’t read. I also like his comments about what makes for a productive quiet time. It helped me to realize that my current pace isn’t working for me, and I’m officially abandoning my resolution to read the Bible cover-to-cover this year. I’m going to go back to Isaiah, where I left off last year, and keep going at my own pace. It was worth a try, but I’m waving the white flag of surrender.
Another observation is that the “snapshot” of someone at any given point doesn’t necessarily reflect their true nature, but also any reactive things that might be going on… Someone who’s had an experience that was painful to some part of them will overcompensate in other ways for awhile. I like solitude, but I’m not sure I’d have scored as highly in the “ascetic” category a few years ago. Some of the experiences over the last few years have been painful to such social nature as I have, and I sense in myself an unwillingness to risk much. I don’t think God will let me get away with that forever, but I also don’t think he’s interested in a “quick fix.” I’ll be very surprised if I return to this book in a few years and find things shaking out in exactly the same way.
I like the way Thomas concludes:
I’m not suggesting that we feed our souls only what we want — and risk shrinking them. There is a time and place for stretching into new experiences, but few of us want to experiment with a new, exotic meal every night. Once we’ve discovered what draws us into the holy, we can explore new areas of nourishment, knowing there’s always something ‘tried and true’ to fall back on.
That seems like such a wise balance to me.
Well, this is an awful lot of talking about myself. Some blog posts are to inform, and others are to journal. I guess this is the latter.
I like the paragraph you quoted, too. I’ve seen that kind of thing happen with spiritual gift tests and studies — people can get all excited about their gift but lose balance, thinking they only have to exercise their gift. For instance, we’re all called to show mercy, we’re all to give, show discernment, etc., but some are more specially gifted in those areas.
A different subject, but that paragraph reminded me of the same need of balance.
I too am looking forward to our Book Club discussion of Thomas’ book. It has gotten me thinking some about how we read in the Bible certain spiritual tendencies of people like David, Daniel, and even Jesus himself — and how we view their examples as somehow prescriptive (this is how you should have a relationship with God) rather than descriptive (this is how this person had a relationship with God). It’s interesting to think how little the Bible talks about things like what a devotional life should look like. What if we in the church have been guilty of prescribing a formula for practicing the spiritual life that has led to more frustration than encouragement in the way of Christ?