Angel and I are enjoying our last day of holidays before going back to work tomorrow. (Sigh) Where does the time go? If only we had another 2 weeks off! We went to Waterton National Park and then into southern B.C. to visit some of my cousins and my uncle & aunt, and thoroughly enjoyed our trip (if you like you can click here to see some pics). Angel finds that if she doesn't get away to the mountains at least once a year she goes squirrelly. Part of that is because she just needs to get away from the doldrums of office life and clear her head. But another part of it is that she relates to God in nature. When she's in the outdoors, especially in the mountains, she finds herself especially drawn to the Lord in what lives and grows. I'm not saying she's a pantheist, but what I'm talking about here is a person's spiritual temperament.
A few years ago I was first introduced to the concept of one's spiritual temperament when I read Gary Thomas' book Sacred Pathways. In it he lists nine different ways one relates to God. Naturalists (like Angel) relate to God in the great outdoors; Sensates connect with God in a multi-sensory way; Traditionalists need structure in their worship of God; Ascetics need peace and quiet in their relationship with God; Activists express their love for God through their involvement in social justice issues; Caregivers love God through their love for the needy; Enthusiasts freely express their love for Jesus; Contemplatives wear their love for God like their hearts - on their sleeves and Intellectuals use their minds to connect with God. No one pathway is better than any other, and there is no right or wrong way to connect with the one true God so long as it's done out of a pure heart (John 4:23-24).
This morning a lady in our church spoke about her recent trip to Africa to attend a Micah Challenge summit; Micah Challenge works to help alleviate poverty in developing nations. Her passion to help the poor and downtrodden is an example of an activist temperament. Another fellow I know from church is more of a traditionalist, even though our style of worship reflects more of an enthusiast temperament. I would also characterize our senior pastor as having an ascetic temperament, as his personality is more on the quiet side to begin with. And me? Well, I think I reflect several different temperaments; I can see bits of the traditionalist/activist/caregiver/enthusiast/intellectual in me. I'm sure there are bits of the other temperaments in the people I just mentioned too. Thomas' book challenges the reader to not only be aware and embrace their temperament, but to also work on the ones they don't relate to. This really resonates with me, as I'm a person who strives for balance. By developing other spiritual temperaments we can enrich our relationship with God, as well as learn to appreciate how other Christians and other churches seek after God.
So, what's your spiritual temperament?
