I am a Type B. My clothes lie scattered around the hamper. I forget to make the bed (I’m often the last one out of it). My cars need to be washed. My office looks like it has been nuked.
Psychologists tell us a Type A personality is ambitious, aggressive, organized, impatient, and highly disciplined. A Type B is easygoing, noncompetitive, relaxed, and at peace with his surroundings. Virginia Price, in Psychology Today, summed up the relationship between the two: “Lots of Type A’s think of Type B’s as slovenly failures.”
Guess what? Lots of us Type B’s feel like slovenly failures. We know the “shoulds” of a disciplined Christian life, but we can’t seem to maintain them.
As a Type B and a pastor, I often wonder: Can I have a vibrant spiritual life? Or do I have to become a Type A? In other words, does spiritual maturity depend upon my getting dirty socks into, not near, the hamper? Does sanctification mean a disciplined, daily, devotional regimen?
The Type A defines a vibrant devotional life in terms of chapters read, verses memorized, journal pages written, and minutes (or hours) spent in prayer, preferably before dawn. Without belittling these practices, I ask myself if this is a complete definition. I don’t think so.
Spiritual vibrancy is not something you do; it is something you are. Time with God is crucial for spiritual health, but vibrancy is based on how we live, not simply on acts we perform every morning.
Devotions for the disheveled
I find diversity is the key. Type B’s are the consummate generalists. We do everything okay but don’t excel at anything. Often our temptation is to concentrate on one style of devotional life, and when we can’t make that glow, give up altogether and castigate ourselves for spiritual immaturity.
In Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster explains, “The disciplines allow us to place ourselves before God so that he can transform us.” Isn’t that the essence of devotional life? Aren’t we seeking to be in the presence of God and changed by that encounter? Foster lists twelve broad disciplines; within them are a multitude of ways to encounter God, from prayer to service, fasting to solitude. The key for Type B’s is to find ways of building the relationship with God that work for now. When they get old, find a new means, or return to one you haven’t used in a year.
What do I do? Several things. Southwestern Kansas is beautiful, rugged country, and I find walking in solitude tremendously renewing. I’m also moved by music. Many hymns (“Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” “God of Our Fathers,” “O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee”) and many contemporary Christian songs are simply prayers set to music. When I don’t have a prayer, I use someone else’s!
I also read widely. Currently I’m using a volume of topical Scripture passages and reading, bit by bit, Berkhof’s Systematic Theology. The key is keeping after it. Consistency is best, but when you fail consistency, replace it with diversity. Again, the goal is not Scripture reading and prayer; the goal is a closer walk with God.
Am I growing?
I’m sure some of you are thinking you have never read such a lengthy justification for laziness. I’ve wrestled long and hard with that (to the point that this article is two weeks overdue). As best I can tell, it’s not laziness. I seriously evaluate my life before God by checking four key areas:
1. My time with God. It may not be a predawn appointment with the Greek New Testament, but whatever my current mode, am I keeping after it? If it’s slipping, I reassert myself or develop a new method.
2. My ministry performance. I look at the aspect of ministry that gives me the hardest time, be it preaching, visitation, or evangelism. Usually, that will be first to go when my walk with God meanders.
3. My marriage. Marriage is a spiritual union. If I were to chart the ups and downs of our marriage and the diligence of my walk with God, the parallels would be uncanny!
4. My besetting sins. When I find myself entertaining lustful thoughts or swearing a blue streak in my brain, I realize my walk with God is suffering.
We Type B’s can have a full and satisfying spiritual life. It isn’t measured by chapters read or the calluses on our knees. It’s based simply on our relationship with the Lord, which we can develop by means as diverse as our personalities. As long as we put ourselves into his presence, we can be confident we will slowly, arduously, and lovingly be conformed to the image of Christ.
-Steven D. Felker
First Baptist Church
Hanston, Kansas
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