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Susan Cain in this video does a great job bringing a clear distinction between introversion, extraversion, a new idea known to me called ambiversion. I’ve been thinking a lot about personality over the last month on top of what I talked about in my last blog entry. I really wanna tie this idea of personality and our identity in Christ. I will first talk about myself. When I was young, I didn’t go out and hangout with a lot of people. I wasn’t a loner but I definitely did not spend a lot of time with a lot of people. Something happened though when I first started college back in 2002. It’s like I entered a social experiment where I was always around a lot of people. This went on till for the most past probably till recently. I realized that I was missing a big part of my life. I was missing the rest that comes in solitude.
Many times some behaviors are learned and kept do to insecurity. Many times people who are really introverted try to become extraverted or at least on the outside because they don’t know who they are and how they were created. Susan Cain mentioned this how this happened in her own life. I believe that happens to many people. About a month ago, I was talking to a friend who told me that most of his life he was always tested as extraverted until something happened. He had experienced a time of freedom of some issues in his heart. He told me that he realized that much of his life he actually dealt with an attitude of people pleasing. Once he overcame this issue in his life he became and even tested as introverted. He told me that he was missing solitude in his life and once he entered into solitude he was so much more whole in his life.
So I want to celebrate people who are looked down upon for their introversion. As Susan Cain says the world needs introverted people. I just want to champion those people who do not want to be around people all the time. They are the thinkers of the world. Many of them have been the world changers of the world. They are the ones that actually want to see change in the world not by trying to overload people but because they want to do what is right. I still consider myself somewhat of an extrovert but I challenge extroverts out there to look for that introverted part of yourself and listen to it. No in the world is purely introverted or extraverted.
Susan Cain talked to the people who have the best of both worlds. The Ambivert. As I look at Jesus’ life, he was the most perfect and balanced human being ever to walk this earth. He was always with people teaching, ministering and discipling. However, he would wake up early in the morning to go into solitude away from the disciples. Jesus knew who He was and what he needed to do to be himself. I’ve seen in my own life that when freedom truly comes in your life, you start embracing the parts of you that you either ignored or seemed liked the unpopular thing to do. All of this can be fixed once we truly know our identity in Christ. To tie this my last blog entry, let us find freedom first in our identity in Christ and then and only then can we embrace the way we were made.
. I bless you guys as the Lord takes you on this journey of life together.
