Funny Story
People are funny. Aren’t they? I find them funny. The other day I went grocery shopping with my older kids—Lee and Rose. My third was in summer pre-school. And while we were driving to the store, the kids devised a plan that I should buy some canned goods for them so they could leave the food out in our alley for homeless people. People frequently go up and down our alley and look through the trash for cans.
So my daughter says, “We should put up a table and put the food on the table for the homeless people.”And my son, Lee replies, “We don’t have a table. We can’t use our desks and we can’t use the kitchen table. People will steal it.”
Rose says, “No, we can use that table in the garage with the ripped top.”
Rose says, “No, we can use that table in the garage with the ripped top.”
Lee replies, “Someone could still steal it!”
Rose says, “We can put a sign on it that says, ‘This food is for homeless people. Take some food. Not the table.’”
Rose says, “We can put a sign on it that says, ‘This food is for homeless people. Take some food. Not the table.’”
Lee: “That’s too long to write. Why don’t we just say ‘Free Food’?”
Rose: Because what if rich people come and see all the food and take it.-Lee: Rich people don’t like canned food, Rosie."
Rose: Because what if rich people come and see all the food and take it.-Lee: Rich people don’t like canned food, Rosie."
There was more discussion that devolved into name-calling and sticking out of tongues and finally shoving my toddler's empty car seat back and forth at each other until I intervened and suggested they both make signs and tape both to the table.
So we do. We get home. They get out the junky table and make their signs. Lee’s sign says, “Free Food” and Rose’s says, “Free food supplies. welcome poor. take what you really really need.”
And I suggest we pray for whoever takes the food. Lee complains about the heat and races inside before I can start. So we follow. Inside Rose sits on the couch, and my son decides to fall on her because, you know, we all need just a little bit more chaos in our lives.Naturally, Rose pinches and scratches Lee back, which enrages him—for what reason, I can't comprehend—and proceeds to go at her tooth and nail. So I do what all reasonable mothers do, I sit on my son to keep his hands off my daughter while she flirts with danger and mocks his inability to reach her.
Above the din I say, “Let’s pray!” After the prayer, they run off to their rooms. My daughter, smug and my son, angry. And I was sitting by myself on the couch, I thought, well, that’s church for you. Two well-meaning people given gifts by God to do ministry together, fight over how to publicize their ministry and then the Holy Spirit has to sit on them and interpret their moans into prayers to God.
In the Body of Christ, we are many parts—Hallelujah and God help us. We reflect and value different aspects of God. And we seek after the Lord in different ways too. This means we hunger after God differently too. When we don’t fill up on God, we ache for him in different ways. You know when you’re hungry and you don’t eat, you don't function very well? Some people get angry, or lethargic, or they don’t notice they're hungry at all.
Intro:
In the Body of Christ, we are many parts—Hallelujah and God help us. We reflect and value different aspects of God. And we seek after the Lord in different ways too. This means we hunger after God differently too. When we don’t fill up on God, we ache for him in different ways. You know when you’re hungry and you don’t eat, you don't function very well? Some people get angry, or lethargic, or they don’t notice they're hungry at all.
Likewise, we were born hungry for the Lord, and we manage that hunger in different ways. Some people take what they think they need; Others withdraw and seek solace in detaching; And still others give to get.
The bottom line is we’re all hungry, and even when we come to know Jesus, we have to learn how to think and act and feel out of the fullness of Christ instead of out of the hunger of our empty selves. But this process takes all our earthly days.
During this time, we are so prone to malfunctioning when we are not, as Jesus said in John 6, eating his flesh and drinking his blood daily. Or if that’s too gory for you: if we are not daily in communion with him. I don’t just mean spending time in quiet prayer and Bible reading. But doing the will of God like Jesus said in John 4—that his food was to do the will of God.
To be in communion with God means we also mentally abide in him, like John 15 says in the I-am-the-Vine-you-are-the-branches-section. And then also in John 15, Jesus tells his disciples to abide by keeping his commandments, namely to love others as God has loved us. To be in communion with God then is a mental, physical, and emotional exercise.
If I had to summarize what it means to be in communion with God, I’d say it’s having a growing faith, that is put to work in all circumstances. And up until somewhat recently, my faith was only working in my quiet times with God and not so much the rest of the day.
There was a disconnect between my quiet times with God and how I lived my life. So I asked God, “Lord, my faith doesn’t seem to be making motherhood any easier. Isn’t my faith supposed to help me enjoy life more? What am I missing?”
And then my aunt, Terri Taylor, invited me to an Enneagram Seminar and things began to come into the light. The dark part of my heart began to come into the light.
The Enneagram’s Three Psychological Needs
The Enneagram charts our needs and explains how we try to get these needs met on our own.
The Enneagram divides human needs into three main categories: Our need for love, power, and security. To be loved includes to be thoroughly known inside and out and accepted no matter our successes or failures. It's to know someone delights in us and enjoys meeting our needs without expecting anything in return. The Enneagram numbers that most feel this need are the 2, 3, and 4.
The need for power includes the ability to influence circumstances around us, control ourselves, and the ability to let go of control. The Enneagram numbers that most feel this need are the 8, 9, and 1.
Lastly, we have a need to feel secure or safe. This doesn't just mean preventing harm from occurring to us. It’s knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that we're going to be okay no matter what happens. The Enneagram numbers that most feel this need are the 5, 6, 7.
We all experience these three needs, but we tend to feel one of these needs more than the others. I think that the way we hunger after the Lord also corresponds to that the way we were made to uniquely reflect our almighty, beautiful, and complex God.
Abby’s Chart
Basic personality typing focuses on strengths weaknesses. And we’re all supposed to appreciate each other and live in harmony. The Enneagram brings in motives. The Enneagram shows how acting according to our STRENGTHS for the wrong reasons results in certain weaknesses. Or let’s use Bible language: “Those who who live . . . according to the flesh . . . produce works of the flesh. They cannot please God. Indeed they cannot. They are filled with anger, pride, deceit, envy, greed, fear . . .” So when we hunger for God in order to get these psychological needs met, we produce a kind of caricature of ourselves that repeats certain sins over and over again.
Our strengths are good gifts from God. Just like good knees and a clear complexion are good gifts. And God gives strengths to everyone. But we tend to over-identify with our strengths and believe this is who we are. People applaud us for these strengths. Those strengths become the way by which we support ourselves through life.
In fact they become the very thing that keeps us from surrendering to the Lord. Thus, the sooner we realize that we have been relying on our strengths instead of the Lord, the sooner we see how we need God. Everyone needs the Lord, but some of us are fooling ourselves into believing we’re okay with our strengths. We’re happy if the Lord just leaves us alone.
FYI: the Enneagram isn’t normally presented like this. In this elective we’re going to be focusing on where the Bible and the Enneagram overlap.
I need to offer some disclaimers about the Enneagram Origin's. And those associated with the Enneagram are a mixed bag: Sufi Muslims, Chris Heuertz (spiritual abuse allegations, Zondervan suspended publication of books), Richard Rohr—Franscician Friar.
Disclaimers
I need to offer some disclaimers about the Enneagram Origin's. And those associated with the Enneagram are a mixed bag: Sufi Muslims, Chris Heuertz (spiritual abuse allegations, Zondervan suspended publication of books), Richard Rohr—Franscician Friar.
I see the Enneagram like a microscope, like a tool. I don’t know who invented the microscope, but I’m all for using the microscope to study God’s world. I intend to share about the Enneagram as I understand it in light of the Bible.
Next disclaimer: some people have used the Enneagram like a horoscope.Who should I marry, who should be my friend, who should you work for… Why did that person just do that to me, let me consult the Enneagram . . .
The problem isn’t the system but the people’s reliance and trust in the system in place of God. People throughout time have been doing this—improperly placing their trust in systems or people or organizations. God is our ultimate guide in life, not the Enneagram.
Last disclaimer: a lot of Enneagram literature isn’t Christian: They don’t attribute God as the source of all good things. Sin isn't the reason for all of our troubles. It’s our parents or upbringing or environment.
And trust in Christ doesn’t solve our deficiencies. Each author of these Enneagram books offers their own solution instead, which if frequently to just believe in yourself.
And trust in Christ doesn’t solve our deficiencies. Each author of these Enneagram books offers their own solution instead, which if frequently to just believe in yourself.
So on your handout I’ve listed three books, which I think most align with the Bible. These are the ones I’ve used for this elective as well as the Bible. Marilyn Vancil: Self to Lose; Self to Find. This one is like the Enneagram for beginners. The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Andreas Ebert and Richard Rohr. This one is more serious Enneagram, gets into the origin and more details about each number
The Enneagram and Prayer by Barbara Metz and John Burchill. This one has verses specific for each strength and weakness of each number as well as suggestions of ways to pray in light of all that.
The Enneagram and Prayer by Barbara Metz and John Burchill. This one has verses specific for each strength and weakness of each number as well as suggestions of ways to pray in light of all that.
Why Share About the Enneagram
So with all these disclaimers, why would we want to teach about the Enneagram? The Enneagram is meaningful to me because the Lord used it to show me where I was using my strengths instead of having faith in him.
Another reason to study it is because it’s trendy right now even among non-Christians, so it can be a great vehicle for talking about the gospel. The language of the Enneagram gives Christians new ways to talk about the gospel. We need the gospel to be told and retold to us as we experience different things and language changes and we change. It helps our faith to grow. A faith that doesn’t grow becomes a burden to us. And lastly, God is in the business of redeeming things with questionable origins.
The world is fairly strewn with discoveries and inventions and traditions that are man’s way of trying to survive here without God. But these things can be used as the platters upon which to serve up the gospel: Tick-tok, facebook, Halloween, the theory of evolution, psychology, the environmentalist movement, the sexual revolution, space exploration, etc...
We have no reason to fear the Enneagram even if man intends it for evil, God can use it for good, to show how he too is involved in our social lives and sexuality and science. In fact, he invented these things.
I think you’d find this elective more helpful, if you took an Enneagram test, but you certainly don’t have to. The information for that is on your handout:https://enneagramtest.net/ — free version
https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/ — more official paid version
Taking a test
I think you’d find this elective more helpful, if you took an Enneagram test, but you certainly don’t have to. The information for that is on your handout:https://enneagramtest.net/ — free version
https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/ — more official paid version
However, the point at the end of this elective is not to know your number, but rather to know how we might be tempted to sin and to then remember that because of Christ, we don’t have to fall into those traps anymore. So that’s all we’re going to cover for today.
Link to this lesson recorded: https://www.facebook.com/granadaheightsfriends
Link to Lesson 2
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