We are each unique people, valuable to God. I’ve written before about how He doesn’t just crank identical Christians off of an assembly line. He doesn’t teach us all the same lessons, in the same order. When we demand that someone be more “holy” in one area, as we are, without appreciating how God has made them holier than us in other areas, we do both them and God a disservice.

Just as we each have our own story of how Jesus revealed Himself to us before we decided to be part of His family, He also creates a unique spiritual experience for each of us after joining.  

Yes, God individually teaches us spiritual lessons, but they are few compared to what He could teach us. He’s not hoarding these spiritual lessons to Himself and being miserly in their distribution. It often takes us decades to be willing and ready to absorb even one small lesson. God waits for us, and patiently prepares the soil of our hearts to receive the seeds of truth He wants to plant there. When we’re ready and willing, He does. Humanity is so broken, is so sinful, that in our finite selves there’s no possibility of addressing all of our sin within 70 or 90 years.

That’s why the body of Christ is so important. Though I might only be able to learn deeply about one or two topics during my lifetime, you are able to learn about a different one or two topics in yours. When we come together, we can edify each other using the things God is teaching us. I might not be able to learn as deeply as you on your topics, but I get to sample your depth when you share your experiences and insights with me. Together, we draw closer to God than we would be able to separately.

Our society generally accepts that we have different personality traits: introverted vs. extraverted, melancholy vs. phlegmatic vs. choleric vs. sanguine, and so on. A person can lean strongly towards only one trait, or be a mixture of several.

Just as we have personality traits, so we have spiritual traits. This makes sense; why wouldn’t our spiritual selves be just as complex as our emotional selves? In the body of Christ, however, the recognition and acceptance of spiritual temperaments seem to be generally lacking.

When someone exhibits different spiritual traits than us, we might dismiss them as kooks, or ask them to change denominations because the expression of their traits makes us uncomfortable. However, just as our spiritual experiences complement each other, so do our spiritual temperaments. We once more do ourselves and God a disservice when we don’t appreciate other people’s spiritual traits as equally valid to our own. Were we to take the time to learn from them, about the ways that they understand and worship God, we would find their experience would enrich our own.

We also don’t fully understand our own spiritual makeup—our traits have a significant impact on the things that we find spiritually satisfying, and on how “fed” we feel when we participate in activities that are supposed to nourish our spirits.

Have you ever marvelled at how many people within the church seem to suffer from the same spiritual emptiness that exists in people who don’t know Jesus? [1]

Have you ever felt “always hungry” in a spiritual sense, and never satisfied? [2]

This may be because you don’t recognize your own spiritual makeup. It may be that you’re not doing the things in devotions and worship that best fit your spiritual type. “Certain parts of [us may never be] touched by a standardized quiet time… People have different spiritual temperaments…what feeds one doesn’t feed all.” [3]

That’s why today I’d like to recommend a book: Sacred Pathways, by Gary L. Thomas. Gary outlines nine spiritual traits that are common among Christians: [4]

  • Naturalists

◦ engaged through nature

◦ view “creation as God’s cathedral” [5]

  • Sensates

◦ engaged through sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste

◦ “moved [through the senses] to a deeper understanding of God’s truth and nature” [6]

  • Traditionalists

◦ engaged through ritual, sacrifice, and scheduled disciplines

◦ “[find] religious practices and rituals [to] be a powerful force for good—a friend, not an enemy, of a rich and growing relationship with God” [7]

  • Ascetics

◦ engaged through solitude and simplicity

◦ “gravitate towards solitude, austerity, simplicity, and deep commitment” [8]

  • Activists

◦ engaged through confronting sin and injustice

◦ “[use the] fear involved in confrontation [to] create a certain dependence on God that isn’t normally there. You don’t just love him, you need him—desperately. Your primary fear is that he’ll leave and you’ll be left to face the challenge on your own.” [9]

  • Caregivers

◦ engaged by loving and caring for others in practical ways

◦ “[find that] one of the most profound ways we can love God is to love others. For caregivers, giving care isn’t a chore but a form of worship.” [10]

  • Enthusiasts

◦ engaged through mystery and celebration

◦ “like to let go and experience God on the precipice of excitement and awe” [11]

  • Contemplatives

◦ engaged through adoration

◦ “As two lovers do nothing but gaze into each other’s eyes, so we gaze lovingly at our heavenly Father and have our heart’s delight satisfied.”[12]

  • Intellectuals

◦ engaged through the mind

◦ “[find that] when they understand something new about God or his ways with his children, then their adoration is unleashed” [13]


Your spiritual self might exhibit strong tendencies towards one or more of these traits. There might be others that are secondary, or that don’t resonate with you at all. Let me try to explain the difference.

Primary Traits

These are the traits that, when you learn of them, you immediately think, Yes, that’s me!

For example, I’m a strong mix of Ascetic, Contemplative, and Intellectual. If all three of these traits are not satisfied in my devotional times, I walk away feeling hungry and dissatisfied.

Secondary Traits

You might enjoy the activities associated with them, and it’s nice to mix up your devotional times with activities that speak to these traits. But if they’re lacking, you don’t feel as though something is missing.

Not-At-All Traits

These are traits that don’t touch you at all. You have absolutely no inclination to do any sort of activity associated with them. If you’re roped into something that speaks to these traits, it will be a chore and not refreshing at all.


I found this book enlightening. It helped me to pinpoint what my spiritual self needs, and how I might address those requirements in devotions. Gary gives plenty of examples of exercises that “feed” each spiritual temperament; provides examples of people who had similar temperaments in the Bible or in church history; highlights temptations and pitfalls that are common to each temperament; and even recommends temperament-specific authors, artists, and other resources that would be helpful in going deeper.

After reading Sacred Pathways, I couldn’t help feeling much more appreciative of spiritual temperaments that are not my own. I also walked away with the important thought that as Christians we need to do better at (i) addressing the needs of more than one or two spiritual temperaments in our worship services and devotional models, and (ii) educating ourselves and each other in how we can each uniquely contribute to the body of Christ.

If you have the resources, please pick up a copy and give it a read! If not, perhaps you can encourage your church librarian to get a copy. I’m now working through this book for the second time in the last two years. I think this will likely become something that I regularly refer to in learning what it means to love and worship God.



NOTES

[1] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 1: Loving God, page 3 of 25 in ebook.
[2] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 1: Loving God, page 3 of 25 in ebook.
[3] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 1: Loving God, page 6 of 25 in ebook.
[4] This entire list comes straight from the various chapter titles of Sacred Pathways, by Gary L. Thomas, so I don’t bother citing each point. However, when direct quotes are used, these are cited (see below).
[5] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 2: Naturalists: Loving God Out of Doors, page 1 of 21 in ebook.
[6] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 3: Sensates: Loving God With the Senses, page 2 of 22 in ebook.
[7] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 4: Traditionalists: Loving God Through Ritual and Symbol, page 2 of 33 in ebook.
[8] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 5: Ascetics: Loving God in Solitude and Simplicity, page 1 of 23 in ebook.
[9] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 6: Activists: Loving God Through Confrontation, page 9 of 22 in ebook.
[10] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 7: Caregivers: Loving God by Loving Others, page 3 of 22 in ebook.
[11] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 8: Enthusiasts: Loving God with Mystery and Celebration, page 2 of 29 in ebook.
[12] Terea of Avila, as quoted by Gary L. Thomas in Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 9: Contemplatives: Loving God Through Adoration, page 2 of 24 in ebook.
[13] Gary L. Thomas, Sacred Pathways (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), Part 10: Intellectuals: Loving God with the Mind, page 2 of 24 in ebook.