Striving for Perfection…ism
Photo by Jonathan Hoxmark on Unsplash
A few months ago, our church spent some time looking at the Enneagram. The Enneagram is like a personality test that allows folks to gain a deeper insight about who they are and how they are built. There are nine type of personalities in the enneagram, and I have discovered that I identify as type One – The Perfectionist.
As a Perfectionist, I like things to be done a certain way. Ones, in general, have a need to be right, do the right thing, and to live right. We avoid fault, blame, chaos, and disorder.
In their book The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert write, “The Apostle Paul was a one. He was a Pharisee. Ones were born Pharisees.”
I have a hard time thinking about Ones being connected to the Pharisees. After all, Jesus seemed to be pretty upset with them throughout Scripture. However, I can somewhat understand the motivations behind the Pharisees’ actions. The Pharisees are just trying to do what they think is the right thing. They are trying to maintain order in the midst of chaos. They are driven by their need to restore order and bring about perfection in an imperfect world. This is why Ones are often criticized for being critical of themselves and of others. They are driven by their need to “fix” things.
Recently someone told me that being a One is the hardest type to be. I don’t know how much truth there is to that, but I can understand why they said it. The defining characteristic of a one is the inner critic that they hear inside your head. “I’m not good enough. I need to be better. I need to be perfect.”
In his book Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Nathaniel Branden writes, “In the inner courtroom of my mind, mine is the only judgment that counts.”
This inner voice forces Ones to constantly seek out “perfection” whatever that might be. This is a voice that Ones know all too well.
Perhaps my “One-ness” is what draws me so much to the United Methodist Church. As Methodists we believe in Christian Perfection.
Now, when we think of the word “perfection,” all sorts of things come to mind. We think about being flawless and being beyond reproach. We think about being like Superman and never making a mistake. When we think about being perfect, we think about someone who has their lives completely figured out and never makes a false step.
But this isn’t what John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, had in mind when he spoke of Christian Perfection. Instead, Christian Perfection means that you have gotten to the point where you truly love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And you truly love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matthew 22:37, 38). Christian Perfection is not something that we can work to attain on our own, but this is something that God does through us and even despite us.
Jesus calls us to be perfect as God is perfect, but this doesn’t mean that we need to fall into the trap of Perfectionism. Instead, God invites us to go on a journey where we become more and more like Jesus.
Ones sometimes need to be reminded that we are called to be perfect like Jesus, not “perfect” like the Pharisees.
So, may God work within our hearts and minds as we strive to love God and love our neighbors.
