Many people have taken the Myers-Briggs personality test. I took it nearly twenty years ago when my former pathology group hired an industrial psychologist to help each of the partners better understand one another and ourselves. Our workplace relationships were dysfunctional and our group president was hopeful this would mitigate or even eliminate some of the conflicts. After answering a series of questions, a personality profile was generated for each of us. The eight categories and its characteristics are presented in this table.
| E | Extraversion (energized by the outer world, live it then understand it) | I | Introversion (energized by inner world, understand it before live it) |
| S | Sensing (reality based, work with known facts, detail) | N | Intuition (associations, look for possibilities and relationships, theoretical) |
| T | Thinking (decisions based upon impersonal analysis, logic, reason) | F | Feeling (decisions based upon personal values, sympathy, subjective) |
| J | Judging (prefer planned organized way of life, decisive, set goals, systematic) | P | Perceiving (prefer flexible and spontaneous way of life, open to change) |
I am an E.N.T.J.
E-extrovert
N-intuition
T-thinking
J-judging
What I and the rest of my partners found so fascinating was how accurate the test was in characterizing our personality traits. One of my partners initially dissented after receiving his profile, claiming the test was wrong, however, a few days later, he sheepishly confessed to all of us that the profile was completely spot on and many of the traits that he thought did not apply to him were accurate. He often tried to project a different image to all of us, one that was opposite to many of the traits that he possessed.
What did I and my partners do with this information? For a few weeks, we all made a concerted effort to utilize our newly gained knowledge to foster a more cooperative and productive environment. There were some initial successes and comments like, “Oh you are an E.N.T.J. so I need to remind myself to give you extra space in this area…. “ were common. With time, the enthusiasm waned and we all returned to our dysfunctional relationships.
When one is given the truth, what does one do with it? It needs to be inculcated, otherwise, it becomes another set of data points, filed away in the recesses of our mind as interesting information but never acted upon, or we may bury it, refusing to acknowledge the truth.
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Romans 5:8-11 (NLT)
The Bible gives all of us the Truth about why we exist, why we are in the state we are in, and what we can do about it. We can choose to file this information away, deny it, or act upon it. Unlike the information about my personality, acting upon it is more than just helping one to correct a dysfunctional relationship. When we accept the Truth about Jesus Christ and accept Him as Lord and Savior, we receive the forgiveness of our sins, salvation, and eternal life.
And whatever your personality type, we all have the ability to respond to God’s invitation.
Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.
The Bereans Blog 