It's Not About the Letters

There's been a raving fad going among my friends since last summer. Ever since the words "Briggs-Myer" was mentioned at some table in some fast food restaurant when some of my friends were having some conversation, it seems to slip into pretty much every day of my life. In case you don't know, Briggs-Myer has to do with four letters that determine your personality.

E or I: Extroverted or Introverted
S or N: Sensing or Intuitive
T or F: Thinking or Feeling
P or J: Perceiving or Judging

We've all become so-called experts in the great art of assigning letters to people. I have to confess that I'm probably the most obsessed of everyone. In some of my free time, I research the different personality types of my friends, but not even that.... I'm also really interested in the letters of famous historical people. I'm a personality junkie. Every time I watch a movie, I analyze all of the personalities of the characters--even if they're cartoons. Oh, yes.

It's so fascinating to me to learn about why people say things and do things that they normally do. I'm interested in questions like: "Why does she always do that? Why do they always have to have every thing in perfect order? Why do some people get distracted when I'm talking to them? How come one person doesn't get along with another person? Why did he say that? "

I've learned a lot about myself, too, like the reasons I can be Mister Roger's when I'm teaching classes or hanging out with people and then be completely happy with spending a few hours in my room being Socrates. Or why I can easily talk for hours with some people and can only stand a few minutes with someone else. Whatever's going on with my behavior or other people's thought processes and however their brains are wired--I want to know. It's like I almost need to know. It's all because I'm an "INFJ."

That pretty much sums it up...

Intriguing as it may be, after almost 7 months of talking and reading and thinking about it, I think it's become nothing more than a way to put all the facets of human complexity into a 16-type box of assorted-chocolates. It has helped me understand people A LOT, but I can't remember a time in my life that I've been more judgmental. Since I supposedly have the knowledge about every single person on the face of the earth, I can easily point out where they fall short and why we just don't click. It may give me the material to build walls rather than bridges between people I interact with every day.


Here's the thing: no human is so simple enough to place into a particular category. Sure, the percentages of each letter varies, but I think we can do better things with humans then put them on shelves and give them a shiny label.

Is the work of Jesus limited to the weaknesses of your personality? Can we not value people the way we're supposed to even if our types don't mesh? You are more than 4 letters. That one friend, they're more than 4 letters. Apparently, they were and are worth dying for, because the most perfect person that ever lived thought so.

So treat them as such and think of yourself like that, too. God did create everyone with different personalities, but we are redeemed from that. We were predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, not to the image of 4 letters.