I took a personality assessment test recently. It wasn’t anything too complex, just a simple series of questions.
The thing that bothered me though was you only had two choices. A or B.
I found myself extremely frustrated as I was forced to pick an answer between the two when either one could have been completely true about me at any given time.
I wonder if my anxiety was an indicator of my personality type as well.
At the end, I felt like a bonus question should have been…..”Did taking this test completely stress you out?” Any yes answers would have indicated people like me. I do not see the world in black and white terms. I realize many people do, but I always find such a view rather limiting and not very well thought out. But, that’s just me.
I understand why people want black and white. Black and white helps for very clear cut choices. It’s either this or that. No middle ground. No gray area. No confusion. And, most importantly - no room for error. Except, I honestly do not believe that life is like that in any way whatsoever.
Oh, there are some choices that are pretty clear cut. Like, if you don’t pay your electric bill, they will cut off your electricity. Or, if you put your hand on a hot stove, it will burn your hand. So, yeah. There are definitely some things that are pretty easy to navigate.
But, when it comes to most everything else, well, I think we have our work cut out for us. In fact, if you are a parent of more than one child, you’ve already learned that what is true for one child is not true for another. Ever. So, where do we come up with this notion that life is that easily sliced up and categorized?
Do I even believe then, that there is an ultimate truth? Yes, I do. I believe there is a God and I believe that his way is superior to man’s way. But, even God’s truth leaves ALL kinds of room for variations on the theme. The only place you see a heavy hand in the bible is in the Old Testament. But, even there, you see grace upon grace. Mercy upon mercy.
But, if you think about it a little bit, you realize how much that grace is needed. Because, frankly, no one has ever been able to live up to a perfect standard. No matter how many laws you put in place. (Ten Commandments) No matter how many rules you have. (Eleven commandments) No matter how hard you work to slice and dice life into perfect little portions, somebody, somewhere is going to come a long and do something stupid.
So, yeah, God is smarter than us. He knows no matter how holy the rules sound, we’re all a bunch of basket cases that are going to need a little bit of grace every now and then.
This bothers a lot of people I’ve noticed. The grace thing. I think it bothers people who want to see justice. Grace bothers people who want to see others held accountable. Grace sounds wimpy to the black and white thinkers. It looks like people are getting away with something.
Yet, even for someone like me who sees the possibility for many different options, grace can even be mind boggling. So, I guess I can understand why black and white thinkers have a tough time with grace.
I tend not to think much about other people’s failings as much as I think of my own. Sometimes I think about other people’s failings though. Usually it’s when their failings are directly affecting me in some way. I tend to not like that very much, but as a general rule (or maybe I should say, as a general principle) I tend not to busy myself with the short-comings of others. The way I see it, I’ve got some many of my own that I don’t have time to worry about yours.
Black and white thinkers, I’ve noticed, do tend to think about others. A lot it seems. Maybe it’s the justice thing. Maybe when they see there are no easy answers or clear cut choices it stresses them out and they want to manhandle life and force life into only two choices - right or wrong?
Just like the forced “choose A or B” stresses me out and I want to add in all the exceptions? Or maybe they are just afraid to let go and not know everything? Because grace really does require that you let go. Completely. You let go completely of the need to judge yourself. The need to judge others. The need to know everything and have every answer. It requires that you acknowledge God knows more than you do. Yeah, God. That spirit that you can’t see, hear, smell, taste or touch. Just that notion alone is enough to send anyone a bit bonkers. But, I digress.
I’m not suggesting I don’t have anxiety or control issues when it comes to what is right or wrong in life. Oh, contraire. I have plenty. I guess I just see how Murphy’s Law is probably better explained as the “general condition of man.”
We really are just a big, fat, blundering mess. So, this notion that we can be explained in our totality by either A or B is absurd. And as you can see, the idea that some psychologist would expect me to explain myself as an “either/or” entity is setting my hair on fire today.
Carry on.
©2009 The Magnolia Diaries, Volume II. All Rights Reserved.
.
The thing that bothered me though was you only had two choices. A or B.
I found myself extremely frustrated as I was forced to pick an answer between the two when either one could have been completely true about me at any given time.
I wonder if my anxiety was an indicator of my personality type as well.
At the end, I felt like a bonus question should have been…..”Did taking this test completely stress you out?” Any yes answers would have indicated people like me. I do not see the world in black and white terms. I realize many people do, but I always find such a view rather limiting and not very well thought out. But, that’s just me.
I understand why people want black and white. Black and white helps for very clear cut choices. It’s either this or that. No middle ground. No gray area. No confusion. And, most importantly - no room for error. Except, I honestly do not believe that life is like that in any way whatsoever.
Oh, there are some choices that are pretty clear cut. Like, if you don’t pay your electric bill, they will cut off your electricity. Or, if you put your hand on a hot stove, it will burn your hand. So, yeah. There are definitely some things that are pretty easy to navigate.
But, when it comes to most everything else, well, I think we have our work cut out for us. In fact, if you are a parent of more than one child, you’ve already learned that what is true for one child is not true for another. Ever. So, where do we come up with this notion that life is that easily sliced up and categorized?
Do I even believe then, that there is an ultimate truth? Yes, I do. I believe there is a God and I believe that his way is superior to man’s way. But, even God’s truth leaves ALL kinds of room for variations on the theme. The only place you see a heavy hand in the bible is in the Old Testament. But, even there, you see grace upon grace. Mercy upon mercy.
But, if you think about it a little bit, you realize how much that grace is needed. Because, frankly, no one has ever been able to live up to a perfect standard. No matter how many laws you put in place. (Ten Commandments) No matter how many rules you have. (Eleven commandments) No matter how hard you work to slice and dice life into perfect little portions, somebody, somewhere is going to come a long and do something stupid.
So, yeah, God is smarter than us. He knows no matter how holy the rules sound, we’re all a bunch of basket cases that are going to need a little bit of grace every now and then.
This bothers a lot of people I’ve noticed. The grace thing. I think it bothers people who want to see justice. Grace bothers people who want to see others held accountable. Grace sounds wimpy to the black and white thinkers. It looks like people are getting away with something.
Yet, even for someone like me who sees the possibility for many different options, grace can even be mind boggling. So, I guess I can understand why black and white thinkers have a tough time with grace.
I tend not to think much about other people’s failings as much as I think of my own. Sometimes I think about other people’s failings though. Usually it’s when their failings are directly affecting me in some way. I tend to not like that very much, but as a general rule (or maybe I should say, as a general principle) I tend not to busy myself with the short-comings of others. The way I see it, I’ve got some many of my own that I don’t have time to worry about yours.
Black and white thinkers, I’ve noticed, do tend to think about others. A lot it seems. Maybe it’s the justice thing. Maybe when they see there are no easy answers or clear cut choices it stresses them out and they want to manhandle life and force life into only two choices - right or wrong?
Just like the forced “choose A or B” stresses me out and I want to add in all the exceptions? Or maybe they are just afraid to let go and not know everything? Because grace really does require that you let go. Completely. You let go completely of the need to judge yourself. The need to judge others. The need to know everything and have every answer. It requires that you acknowledge God knows more than you do. Yeah, God. That spirit that you can’t see, hear, smell, taste or touch. Just that notion alone is enough to send anyone a bit bonkers. But, I digress.
I’m not suggesting I don’t have anxiety or control issues when it comes to what is right or wrong in life. Oh, contraire. I have plenty. I guess I just see how Murphy’s Law is probably better explained as the “general condition of man.”
We really are just a big, fat, blundering mess. So, this notion that we can be explained in our totality by either A or B is absurd. And as you can see, the idea that some psychologist would expect me to explain myself as an “either/or” entity is setting my hair on fire today.
Carry on.
©2009 The Magnolia Diaries, Volume II. All Rights Reserved.
.