A Book You must read

"Sacred Pathways" by Gary Thomas is a must read book for anyone who loves God and wants to understand the way people relate to Him.

Gary explores nine different spiritual temperaments and explains how these temperaments affect the way we walk with God.

This book helped me tolerate my own and others style of approaching God. The tendency is to confine ourselves to others who travel our same pathway to God, but this is unfortunate. If we develop tolerance in the church body for these differences, we will be all the richer for it.

Let me try to explain the nine different temperaments.
You will recognize yourself and others as you read.

(It is understood that Christ is the only way to the Father.)

OK.
#1-Naturalists-Love God best when they are out of doors. They see the natural world proclaiming, 'God Is.'

#2-Sensates-Love God with the Senses. They love to bask in the awesomeness and beauty of God. They take in what they see, hear, and smell, etc. and use these senses to send their hearts soaring. These folks enjoy a liturgical and majestic form of worship.

#3-Traditionalists-They love God through symbols, sacraments, sacrifice, and rituals. They need structure and may appear to others to be legalistic. They find depth and historical rituals to be life-giving and full of the discipline that they crave.

#4-Ascetics-Love God through Solitude and Simplicity. They love to be alone with nothing to distract them. Even as they are part of a group, they may seem isolated from others. They tend to be introspective and do not enjoy atmospheres that keep them from being able to hear God and enjoy His rest.

#5-Activists-Love God through Confrontation of injustices. They are energized by conflict and believe in telling it like it is.

#6-Caregivers love God by loving and serving others. Mother Teresa is a good example of a caregiver.

#7-Enthusiasts-They love God through celebration and mystery and are cheerleaders for God. They think something is missing if they are not moved by the experience of God's power in the midst of body life. They don't want to just know things about God, they want to experience Him, and desire to motivate others to experience God's power as well.

#8-Contemplatives-They love God through adoration and view God as a loving Bridegroom and/or Father. Like Mary of Bethany, who sat at Jesus' feet, these folks want to love Jesus like she did. They do not focus on obeying, serving, or doing great things for God. They just want to love Him and adore Him.

#9-Intellectuals-Love God with their Mind. They love to study and live in the world of concepts. They feel closest to God when they understand something new about Him.

The balanced Christian will display many or all of these temperaments in one way or another. When you understand which temperament fits your souls pathway to God, then you can nurture that pathway. For example, if you are an intellectual, then feed your soul with good books. If you are a naturalist, make sure you have time alone outside. If you are a contemplative, guard your private life from too much activity.

Each temperament has its strengths and its downfalls. If we want to serve God faithfully for many more years to come, we must feed and strengthen our temperament and tend to the garden of our souls.

Some of my favorite quotes from the author are the following:

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's spiritual walk. After all, it's his, not yours. Better to discover the path God designed you to take-a path marked by growth and fulfillment, based on your unique temperament."

"Because some very helpful activities in the history of the church...have occasionally become polluted...some Christians have thrown most of them away. We have cut too far, however, amputating the arm because we fear an infection in the finger."

"Faith" today is often seen as a tool to get something special from God. Historically a man or woman of faith is one who was willing to give something precious to God."

"Solitude is a tool when we use it to recharge; if we neglect "the town," however, we won't be able to reach those who most need our message."

"Our lives take us through many different seasons and we must learn to adapt our spirituality and even our spiritual temperaments to meet the different demands of our changing life situations."

"Without rest, activists may adopt the self-defeating motivations of hatred and anger instead of love and compassion...When our activism is oriented around the love of God, it is as acceptable to God as the contemplative's prayer. If it is oriented around confrontation for its own sake, we may be feeding a sinfully divisive spirit rather than serving the unifying Holy Spirit."

"Contemplatives simply want to bathe in the ocean of love God has for His children, while the rest of us seem unfortunately content to experience that love drop by drop."

Well, I can barely stop. I love this book. I know you will too.

At the end of each chapter there is a list of questions to help you rate your spiritual likes and dislikes which helps you figure out what your temperaments are. I think you should just go out and buy a copy. I borrowed mine and since this is a re-re-read, I will have to get my own.
I'll leave you with a final quote.

"There is one thing that each individual Christian can do that nobody else can: give our personal love and affection to God."

This book has helped me understand the differences in the way my fellow believers worship God and I appreciate our differences in a new way. I gather the differences to my heart and I say, "Show me the way you love God best and I will learn from your ways and love Him more."