For about a year or two now, I have been fascinated by and interested in studying Meyers-Briggs personality types. What this is is sixteen different four-letter personality outlines given by the results of a Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Test such as this one. Your results can be either Introverted or Extroverted, iNtuitive or Sensing, Thinking or Feeling, and Judging or Perceiving. As an example-- my own "type" is an INFJ, as I have a tendency (note: not a total reliance) towards using those four letters the most in my life. If you want to look into this for yourself more, you can go to any of the numerous MBTI sites such as 16Personalities and read up on it all. Like I said, it is super fascinating.
However... lately, I have been a little turned off from MBTI. I still love studying people's personalities, and I would still say that this test is good for getting a general picture of the way people function, but it is the ways that I have noticed myself and others using it that are cause for concern.
It is easy for us to forget, as we get excited about cognitive functions and various aspects of personality, that the creators of the MBTI test were humans. Therefore, they were fallible and did not know everything. Were they intelligent? Yes, of course! But it is not humanly possible for us to comprehend the full scope of personality and each of our similarities and differences; only our Creator can do that. The MBTI test is not meant to be the final say in what attributes you have or do not have. None of us can be confined to a four-letter box, to a test that is bound to make some mistakes. Please hear me out, friends: Meyers-Briggs is great, but it cannot and should not define you. When you let it take over your life and your identity, it can lead you to dangerous waters.
Connecting with people of the same personality type is so wonderful-- it's lovely and encouraging to find people whose brains work similarly to yours. However, in finding these like-minded friends, it is so important that you do not let your camaraderie exclude your other friends who have a different combination of personality traits. Don't let yourself get so wrapped up in your type that, consciously or not, you make others feel lesser for not being the same type. Don't attribute qualities such as creativity, imagination, compassion, analysis, empathy, whimsy, farsightedness, etc. to one type-- another type can be every bit a dreamer or as logical as you are, or even both! To attach good qualities that many people share to one specific type is exclusive and only further perpetuates usually-untrue stereotypes. Furthermore, it annoys others who see those qualities in themselves and wonder why they apparently can't have them as much as you do. Similarity is not bound to types; there are times when I relate to other types better than my own. I have very dear friends whom I love that, according to this test, are very different than me-- and it is wonderful. Type is not everything; maintaining harmony in friendships is so much more important than being divisive with what the four letters say about you. If you focus too much on elevating yourself and on the differences between you and others, you will eventually lose those others.
Another thing that I have noticed, especially in my own life, is that personality is way too often used as an excuse not to do things. "Oh no, I can't do that-- it's not in my nature." "Okay, I'll try-- but I'll probably be bad at it because I'm not a Sensor." "I know you want me to evangelize, God, but I can't approach strangers with the Gospel-- I'm an introvert!" "I can't be compassionate-- I'm not a Feeler!" "I can't teach; that's not my spiritual gift!"
Nowhere in the Bible does God call people based on their personality type, their comfort zone. Moses had some form of social anxiety-- he talked with a stutter-- and God chose him to speak to Pharaoh himself and to lead thousands of Israelites out of Egypt. Moses tried to do our whole thing of "Oh, that's not in my nature, I can't do that!"-- and God still called him to it anyway. It's the same thing with evangelism; sharing Christ with a lost and dying world far, far outweighs any qualms we may have about our personalities. Where we are weak, He is strong; where we are lacking, He will help us grow. But as long as you limit yourself to the confines of personality, you will never grow to be the person that God wants you to be. There is no excuse for disobeying what God has called you to-- especially not your MBTI type. He has created you for more than this, dear heart.
Is it okay to be interested in your personality type? Yes! Is it okay to talk about personality theory with others? Of course! Just be careful in how deeply you dive into studying it, and be careful in how you use it. MBTI is meant to be a tool to better understand yourself and others, and to learn how to better connect to others. It is not meant to be divisive or to limit you-- you and others are worth so much more than that. Live in the freedom that you have in Christ-- it's so, so much better (and more important) than living in a four-letter box.
