I really enjoy watching people and being able to notice their personality types. I don’t see that so much as a hard and fast rule about who a person is, but more how a person sees and reacts to the world around them. If you have ever looked into the Meyers Briggs personality types, I’m noticing the P and J traits today.
I like to call P impulsive. It’s the person who is bored at home and suddenly comes up with “let’s drive 5 hours to some botanical garden and go have a picnic!” It doesn’t have to be this extreme of course. It could be a person who is just not great with schedule, is late a lot, and often forgets appointments. Impulsive people are very fun and also the bane of any planners existence. They are great to have around in a crisis. They think clearly when things are off track or not going according to plan and are flexible and able to adapt quickly to ever changing situations.
Versus the J person is called “Judging”. In my mind, I like to call them planners. They plug your birthday into their mental calendar when they meet you. They are good at being on time, staying on task, and have an emergency plan for every scenario. Actually like 2-3 emergency plans. They also think very far ahead, tend to worry over circumstances that haven’t happened yet, and make plans accordingly. They are wonderfully structured and nothing in life could happen without planners! But when things go off the schedule, they struggle and get stressed out.
The most ideal person has learned how to operate in both. Of course, you are always prone to live in one of these ways. For example, I am impulsive (P type) and I really enjoy a random let’s go to the arcade and get ice cream and go have a picnic and then spend the weekend at a hotel day. I am a lot of fun and also good to have in crisis because I am good at coming up with plans on the spot. But I am NOT good at making sure my kids take baths every night or stay on task when it comes to homework or saying no to a party in the middle of the week or being on time to school events or…well you get the idea. I have had to LEARN how to do these things. I am much better now when it comes to schedules and being on time and my kids appointments. But it takes work. I call it discipline. And when God calls you to impulsively step out of your plan and trust him for the next step even though it’s very off task, I call that obedience.
Impulsive is good for obedience.But planning and structure is good for discipline. You need both!
How can I be obedient to God telling me to go to a remote country to preach if I am sorely out of shape? That takes discipline first!How can I say yes to venturing off the beaten path if I am so focused on staying on task? That takes obedience.We need to give the Holy Spirit the room to be God in our church service, but we need to first have built the structure of the church service.We need to trust God with our finances when he is pulling at our hearts to put our only two talons in the tithe box. But we need to first have done the work necessary to earn those talons.We need to trust that Jesus will calm the storm that has popped up, but we also need to have first been diligent to row to the middle of the lake.We need to build our house first on the solid rock. And then when the storm comes, we need to trust God and not panic.It’s both discipline and obedience.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednago (Aka Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) are an amazing example of this.
Daniel 1:11-16
Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, “Please test your servants for ten days: Give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food, and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.” So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.At the end of the ten days they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead.
This shows us discipline in real time. We cannot expect to suddenly have a healed marriage overnight. We cannot suddenly lose all the weight we have been putting on for years. We cannot suddenly have an orderly organized home with kids on schedule. These things must happen little by little. This is discipline and structure.
These young men were disciplined in Christ. They knew right from wrong. They were strong and determined to follow Gods laws. And they were disciplined to eat what was not “choice food” because they were disciplined to follow God.
Later on, they show up again and now their obedience is great as a result of the foundation laid by discipline.
Daniel 3:16-18
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
These three were immediately obedient and bold. This didn’t happen overnight, but it did happen in an instant. Discipline grows little by little. Obedience should be the immediate response then when that foundation is laid.
Exodus 23:30
Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.
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