Good morning…
Inspired by a deep discussion over a birthday season brunch, God grew within me an opening activity for our Enneagram class this week. As about fifty women gathered together in the Chapel at church, I said, “On a blank sheet of paper, we are going to answer five simple questions. On the left side of your page, write numbers 1 through 5 and leave a space beside each number.” (Now if you would like to do this reflective exercise yourself this morning, we will wait for you to get a blank page and number it yourself, allowing open space beside your 1 through 5.)
Then I continued: “Are you ready? Settling down into your soul where you and God meet, slowly, prayerfully answer the following questions.”
- “What color is peace?”
- “What sound does anger make?”
- “How does joy taste?”
- “When you are holding sorrow, what words form in your heart?”
- “What is the smell of love?”
We all took some time to look over our answers before we shared with two or three other people insights we felt compelled to share from our page. Then as a large group we popcorned aloud words for each number.
- Color of peace: “Yellow.” “Blue.” “Green.” “Lavender.”
- Sound of anger: “Thunder.” “Silence.” “Growl.” “POW.” “The screaming of a heated argument.”
- Taste of joy: “Chocolate.” “Stromboli.” “A shared bottle of wine.” “Anything baked in my mother’s kitchen.”
- Words for sorrow: “Heavy.” “Tears.” “Pain.” “Grief.” “Lonely.”
- Smell of love: “A clean baby.” “Flowers.” “Fresh air.” “Puppy breath.”
No two people answered the sane, showing in a gentle way our rich, far-reaching rainbow of personal perceptions.
If you feel compelled, touch on the “Previous” link six times at the top of this post and review the week of wisdom we have gleaned together. Which of the words move you most personally from our messages this week?
In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do…I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences (Ephesians 4:1-3, MSG).
…Sue…
