Good morning…
Okay. So I am an ENFP on the Myers Briggs personality test. Extroverted. Intuitive. Feeling. Perceiving. That’s me. Creatively collaborative, highly intuitive, and deeply perceptive, I feel every facet of life with great gusto. As a very strong “P,” I get so caught up in the joy of flying that I have a hard time landing the plane, placing the final period, closing the deal because . . . new possibilities always exist and I have never met a possibility I did not want to ponder just a little bit longer.
Okay. So I am a NINE on the Enneagram, a dynamic personality assessment tool developed by Christian mystics and our faithful Desert Fathers. Being a NINE, I see all sides of each issue, each person, each situation, and I want to make peace with every single ounce of every little thing. Making peace with every minute morsel takes a lot of time, a lot of hemming and hawing, a lot of “maybe this-ing” and “maybe that-ing,” and maybe, just maybe, it is both this and that.
I tell you these things so that you will understand why the 11th hour is so fertile for me. When the clock is about to strike midnight, when the feared 4:00 pm call is about to ring my phone, when class starts in our living room at a given set time, the “P” in me is still exploring possibilities and the NINE in me wants to make peace with each passing thought . . . right up until the very last second. This is me. This is my God-given wiring. This is why the last minute often evaporates unnoticed and, “Oh no!” I am surprised by time. Again.
Back up with me just a minute and let me tell you a story. I used to have a lifetime learner who came to class so excited each week, but she came so excited . . . about forty-five minutes early. Well, as you might guess, her very early arrival time clashed with my habit of milking each minute in the 11th hour to its nth degree. Because of my quirky friend, who has since passed away, I learned to tell my classes each new semester, “I am not like our kids’ coaches who demand, ‘If you are not fifteen minutes early, you are late.’ I am the opposite. If you are fifteen minutes early, you are fifteen minutes early. Please enjoy those fifteen peaceful minutes conversing with God in your car, while I am peacefully preparing my home and my heart to welcome you in at our scheduled start time.” I am not kidding. A statement like this has been part of my introductory email for several semesters now.
Well, starting a new semester this January, with a stomach-bug forcing me to cancel our first class and feeling “under the weather” and “behind the eight ball,” I forgot to write in my introductory emails, “Please don’t knock on our door early.” So, on Friday morning a newcomer to class knocked on our door ten minutes early. I was still in my pajamas donning my clunky old glasses, smelling of morning breath since I had not yet brushed my teeth. Now you know, she walked in our front door and stepped directly on my sensitive ENFP, NINE nerve, the nerve that is so highly protective of every minute in each 11th hour. So what did I do?
To my amazement, I saw my pajama clad self feel, think, and act differently this time around. I did not feel possessive of those last ten minutes. I did not feel embarrassed by my attire. I did not feel overreactive resistance welling up in me. The old self-protective me would have been all those three things, possessive, embarrassed, passive-aggressively resistant. Instead I welcomed her in, with my genuine whole heart, and when she said, “I know I am ten minutes early, but can I help you with anything?” With authentic gratitude I responded, “I would love for you to light our candles while I go get dressed.”
To the glow and the yummy scent of our newly lit candles, I saw that God had cleared a clogged crevice in my heart. Some people say, “Simple pleasures are the best,” and I would have to add . . . “Small healing shifts of the heart may be even better.”
And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns (Philippians 1:6, NLT).
…Sue…
