LOSING TO WIN
PERSONALITY STRUCTURE
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Diagnosing a broken structure
requires familiarity with the nature and function of its parts. To relay the results of any investigation demands
the use of accurate terms with precise meanings. To correct the effects “loss”
had on my personality I first had to deal with a semantic difficulty. Psychologists, Sociologists, Philosophers, Anthropologists,
and other fields of study frequently use terms and definitions peculiar to
their specific disciplines. Unfortunately
more often than not they adopt Biblical terms but alter them with none Biblical
definitions. I also recognized from my study as a pastoral counselor that despite
a shared vocabulary nearly all Christian Theologians use their own nuanced
definitions for the same words. The entire
topic of human personality seems plagued with vague terms and fuzzy definitions.
The simple fact is the Bible was never intended
to be used as a psychology text book. Rather
its purpose as stated in 2 Tim. 3:15-17 is to make us “wise for salvation” and
equip believers “for every good work”. So it should not be surprising that on the
topic of human personality even the Bible varies its own wording with quite
vague meanings on the subject, especially between the New and Old Testaments.
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Even so, a lot of Christian
authors and Biblical scholars agree that the term “heart” means man’s
personality. The physical heart makes a great
metaphor for its none-vascular namesake.
Both are composed of two regions with four functioning chambers. Naturally
a case could be made for other configurations. Yet the number of well-known authors,
theorists, and Biblical as well as none Biblical scholars that use the concept
in their work contribute a great deal of legitimacy to this model. An abbreviated list of those who use the
four-sided heart approach to personality includes such authorities as: Judson Cornwall, Stephen Covey, Lawrence J.
Crabbs, Ron Jenson, Peter Honey, Carl G. Jung, David Kolb, Robert S. McGee, Pat
Springle, and many others.
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While grasping at the topic, I
was struck by the number of instances of scriptural repetitions related to the quadrilateral
nature of man’s personality…that is the heart. Perhaps the clearest example of the four elements
of man’s personality is found in Romans 15:13.
“May the of hope fill
you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,” Romans 15:13 (NIV)
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These four components are further
divided in two distinct spheres within the heart it calls the soul. Of course Jesus describes the heart and its
structure with extreme precision in Mark 12:30 and it is repeated in Luke 10:27.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
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Viewed as whole this pair of
pairs affords a tremendous visual aid for identify the makeup of the human
heart.
I constructed the diagram below to illustrate the structure
showing its components. It pictures the “HEART” as the entire unit while the “SOUL” refers specifically to the orbits
in which four interrelated elements operate.
Notice the Bible
references do not include the diagram’s central feature, the human spirit. That vital feature is the focus of a future blog.
We must set it aside for now in order to concentrate on the soul of man’s
heart. The exclusion, at this stage of
the discussion, serves to keep us from confusing the spirit’s role with that of
the soul. The differences between the
spirit and soul are too important to allow their distinctions to get
mixed-up.
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There are quite a few references that confirmed
the quadrilateral structure of the soul. The most convincing ones include;
Colossians 1:9-13, 1 Thessalonians 1:3, Philippians 1:9, and Ephesians 1:17-19
+ 3:17-19. Each of these is a prayer for
Godly maturation in the hearts of the saints.
Taking these as a whole they provide a standard by which to evaluate the
healthy resilience well-formed heart.
The
elements of personality categorized in this manner helped me visualize the
consequence of loss. Without this kind
of dissection into identifiable components an accurate assessment of a healthy
personality would be impossible. However
with this list I believed I could (A) identify and (B) assess areas of
weaknesses within me. Such a procedure
is essential for a diagnosis. However as
you follow me through this process please heed the warning of a respected
expert in the field of psychology, Lawrence J. Crabb, Jr., Ph.D.
“As I discuss the
various component parts of this whole person, I may give the impression that I
think of a person as nothing more than an assortment of parts. Let me state clearly that I believe a person
is an indivisible whole. My effort…is to
better understand how that indivisible whole functions by looking at the key
functioning elements within the human personality.”
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The components of the soul identified
in the previous diagram and chart present a number of descriptive words. I found it most convenient and descriptive to
synthesize terms for those components from those words. The two main categories
of the soul then became Emotion and Intellect. They could have been
Instinctual and Mental, Feelings and Ideas, or something else but Emotion and
Intellect worked just fine.
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Emotion
is subdivided into (1) Identity and
(2) Action. “Identity” can be thought of as our
inclination to establish associations with people, places, ideas, and
things. “Action” designates the element
of personality that activates our capacities to confidently initiate conduct. The two facets on the intellectual side are (1)
Knowledge and (2) Understanding. The things we think we know I recognized as “Knowledge”
and the things we believe are true or real is “Understanding”. These four combine to form what some refer to
as our attitude of heart, our personality, or our heart.
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With accurate
terms selected to identify these four aspects of personality I believed I was able
to confront the harmful effect of loss but could now discover a workable
solution and present the results in a reasonable manner. However before that I
had one more key feature to identify within the heart. That central feature is mans’ spirit. Understanding the human spirit and the role
it plays in the human heart led me as I hope it leads others to the Key which
overcame the destructive effects of loss in my life.
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