FINDING OUT WHO WE ARE

 I recently attended a talk by American life coach and minister Dr. Johnny Parker who sent me to Viacharacter.org, a website that assesses your character strengths for free. These are my results.

Viacharacter says that knowing and using your character strengths can help you in life. Dr. Johnny is all for this self-knowledge. He cites the example of biblical David who turned down King Saul’s offer of his own armour to face Goliath, because "he was more of a slingshot kind of a guy."

If we would like the self-knowledge of David, we can start by asking ourselves these questions through journaling, in prayer or perhaps on a long walk:

What is my story?

Who am I?

What do I want?

Why do I want it?

Dr. Johnny’s steps to take us to a place of self-knowledge form the word RISE. You can download them here. 

R is for Robust—knowing our personal strengths from answering the questions above, we can ask ourselves how best we can be intentional about using them. 

This brings to mind the parable of the talents. Two of the three recipients of monetary talents were fruitful with what they were given, because they understood how to put their assets to good use.  

Surely finding and using our God-given talents is  the most satisfying thing we can do with our life?

The I in RISE stands for Impact. Dr. Johnny here invites us to ask ourselves heart-centric questions, because we are prone to negative thinking—of the kind, “Who am I to do that?” However, all things are possible through Christ, “who strengthens me,” (Phil.4:13). We look to discern, “What is my unique opportunity?” “What makes this possible?”

S is for Seek and it involves going deeper into our quest for self-knowledge: “Who do I want to become and what is the story I want my life to tell?” We need to remember how the Bible always invites us to be kind to ourselves. Our souls need rest. Jesus invites us to rest in him: “I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” (Matt.11:29-30).

We need to work out the things we should stop doing as well as start doing, and those things that we need to continue doing.

The E of RISE stands for Effect. Dr. Johnny suggests writing a letter or a journal entry from the position of having already achieved what we would like to happen. We should ask ourselves how this result came about. What did I do? What made me fruitful? How did this dream come true?

He reminds us that God is, “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.” (Eph.3:20).

Returning to my self-assessment with Viacharacter.org, I was happy to see that spirituality came out as my Number 1 strength. I was less happy that creativity only came 20^th, and was categorized as a ‘lesser strength’.  

Huh! I mean, what kind of a result is that for a writer? I felt like protesting. Then I realised I had only myself to blame. The results came from my own answers…

 

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