Personality and Calling

            Understanding personality has been essential to psychology since its founding. Theorists have spent countless hours investigating commonalities and particularities of being human. This has led to numerous tests being developed: Myers-Briggs, 16PF, Strengths Finder, etc. Most of the research has been devoted to understanding personality traits, which are relatively stable patterns of behavior. However, until fairly recently, the instability of personality traits, along with other ways of understanding personality, have been regularly overlooked.

            In reality, classifying people into broad strokes has been largely ineffective. Of course, some people tend to be introverted while others tend to extroverted, but we have neglected that introverts can sometimes “rise to the occasion” while extroverts need “time to unwind by themselves.” The growing recognition about personality is that our traits are not as global as we would like to think. In fact, our personality is largely contextual. So, while you may think of yourself as being very introverted, but perhaps you have only accommodated to situations where you were either uncomfortable or surrounded by those more extroverted than yourself. Thus, by talking about traits, we may lose sight of just how adaptable we can be.

            The other big challenge to understanding personality is to move beyond patterns of behavior. You are not limited to what you do right now. Your self-concept, or personality, is also shaped by your past and present. People understand themselves in the light of their personal narrative, or life story, and view themselves through the lens of their unique life. Life events shape us into the people we are. Beyond just our past, we are also people who are driven by goals to be something other than what we are right now. Sometimes these goals can even be in conflict with our personality traits, such as goals to be more adventurous when we tend to be fairly conscientious.

            Alongside all of this psychology, we also must not neglect our spirituality. Who has God created us to be and what are our spiritual gifts? I believe that God does not provide only a general call to our entire life but also a specific calling for particular moments. Sometimes these moments may be within our comfort zone for our personality traits but other times we must face our fears and accomplish something beyond ourselves with God’s help. I believe that everyone has spiritual gifts that they can use to contribute to others within their community. I pray that you are never limited by your so-called personality traits, life history, or outlook for the future but that you may find your calling and pursue that vision with all of your being.