Knowing Me, Knowing God

I'm not going to finish the book Knowing Me, Knowing God by Malcolm Goldsmith because I think I got what I wanted from it in the first fifty pages. I can't put it on my Read 30 books in 2005 list, but I can still write about it here.

My Meyers-Briggs personality type is INFJ but I tested INFP on the exercise in this book, which is meant to give a kind of spiritual personality type. This result both explains some things and provides some helpful guidance to me. My understanding of the J/P thing is that Judgers like to come to conclusions and can be a bit uncomfortable with the process of getting to the decision point, especially if it goes on longer than expected. Perceivers, on the other hand, like to gather data and to experiment and become uncomfortable when it's time to reach a conclusion or make a decision.

In much of my life, I'm certainly a J. There's nothing I like better than making a plan, preferably one that requires lots of decisions. I'm only momentarily disappointed when a plan falls through, because it usually means I get to make a new plan! But for spiritual things I happily live with ambiguity and I love to experiment. So now I know why there are some parts of my life that don't map well to the descriptions I've read of INFJs.

Even better, I've discovered a new way to approach uncertainty. As an INFJ, it can drive me nuts. See, for example, my stress over the job search. But if I can transform the whole thing in my mind to a spiritual quest, it becomes a metaphysical adventure and the uncertainty is part of the fun. Instead of obsessing over the job market, I can trust that benevolent powers in the universe will make sure I get the job that I'm meant to have. Instead of endlessly rewriting my resume, I can use job ads to help me define for myself the kind of librarian that I want to be. Instead of fretting about choices that I may have to make, I can begin to think of ways to make the job a creative expression of my self, no matter where I end up working.     #

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