My Opinion on Personality Tests

Personality tests. Every Christian loves them. From the Enneagram, to the Myers-Briggs, to DiSC, to HEXICO, and the list keeps going on and on. Of all the different personality tests, I would say Christians love to use the Enneagram more than any other. It’s very unlikely that a Christian woman hasn’t posted a floral looking picture of their type at least once on Instagram. I first heard about the Enneagram system and its types about two to three years ago. At the time, I loved it. I was taken away by the fact that it was so accurate. I took the test, got a type six, then read the description and was in awe of how spot on it was. About a year or two later, I started to question whether I really was a six or not after realizing that the way I was growing was in a way so different to the description of a type six, that I decided to take the test again. I got a six. I was so confused as to why it kept on giving me a six, yet I felt like I wasn’t a six anymore. I questioned why that was the case and I thought I had figured it out, and I think I was right. The problem was that even before I had first taken the test, I had been told by someone more knowledgeable of the Enneagram than me, that I was a six. They briefly explained what that meant, and that lead to me taking the test to fact check them. You see, the problem was that each time I had taken the test following that encounter, I answered with the thought of “how would a six answer this” in the deepest part of the back of my head. Every time I took the test, I had the fact that “I was a type six” in the back of my head. Since taking the test after clearing my head, I found out I was a type two. Then I was a type four. Then I was a type nine. I’m sure you’re getting the point; I just couldn’t find out what I really was. So...I went to the Myers-Briggs. My brother, Brennan, is obsessed with the Myers-Briggs and knows everything to know about it. He can tell which of the sixteen types you are based off of spending just one hour with you. I asked him which type I was, and sure enough, it seemed spot on. The only difference in my experience with the Myers-Briggs versus my experience with the Enneagram was that I didn’t give myself the time with the Myers-Briggs. Personally, I think that the Myers-Briggs is so much better than the Enneagram, however I didn’t really want anything to do with it. Why? Here’s why:

In my experience with the people around me, including myself, I’ve noticed that we as humans desire even the smallest amounts of attention and self-centeredness — even if that looks like reading about your ‘type’ and telling others about it. Something I found fascinating about the enneagram and Myers-Briggs is that I can literally read about what my own strengths and weaknesses are, without doing any of the work to find out what they are myself. It’s almost as if I spent more time reading about what someone considered to be my pros and cons rather than me finding out more about myself on my own. The reason this wasn’t wise of me is because I was telling other people what I thought my strengths and weaknesses were, rather than what they actually were. Please don’t misread what I’m sharing...I have nothing against personality tests. They’re great tools that can help us appreciate each other and even appreciate God’s creation more. They really are. There are times that I’ve used these tests to find out how to treat the people around me and it’s worked out well. Other times it hasn’t. My point is not that we shouldn’t use personality tests, my point is that maybe we’re allowing a website about nine different personalities that’s taking a snapshot of eight billion different people dictate how we act, grow, and love. As Christians, our identity is found in Christ, and Jesus is where we should be growing towards. The issue is that too many of us are more concerned about how accurately we are in accordance to a personality test than we are in accordance to how God has made us individually. I’ve seen too many people use these tests as their backbones. They find out they’re a type four, for example, then feel the need to grow into what the test says about what a type four ought to be. Or they hear that they’re a type seven and all of a sudden they’re identity belongs to what a website and/or book can describe them as rather than who Jesus has made them to be. You see, when we allow things of this world to define who we are, we aren’t allowing the Holy Spirit to grow and change us throughout the various trials and mountains we pass through. I would encourage you to use these tests as a way to love on people better rather than conforming yourself to your respected type. If no one has told you this yet, let me be the first: you are not entitled to what another human has defined you to be. Stop worrying about how to be the best type two you can be and start worrying about the best YOU you can be. God made us in His image and that means we ought to conform to Him. He ought to be our backbone and our cornerstone, not a flawed, man-made personality test. We must strive to be like Him and not like anything that this world has to offer. So no more “oh my gosh did she just ask me if I wanted to stay at home tonight? I’m a type seven how could she even say such a thing”, and lets not allow these things to define us. Let’s let the God of the universe be the One to do that.

-Jack Hilsher

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭139:14‬ ‭(ESV‬‬)

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”