The Enneagram and Fig Leaves

Most people love personality tests. We enjoy taking the quizzes and trying to gain deeper understanding about who we are and how we tick. Some of them can be very flattering - finding all the things we’re good at, realizing that it’s OK to not want to be around people all the time, or understanding that we like to think a lot before we share our opinions.

But have you thought about how a personality test can enhance your walk with God? We’re all broken. Ever since Adam and Eve, we’ve been sinful and broken humans, but we’re not all broken in the same way. The more we understand our unique style of broken and what we tend to do to fix it, the more effective we can be in inviting God into that brokenness and experiencing His healing.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they became ashamed of their nakedness, made clothes for themselves and hid from God. We all follow the same basic response to our sin. We try and cover it ourselves with clothes of our own design and we hide from God.

One interesting thing about the fall in Genesis 3 is that Adam and Eve’s first clothes were made of fig leaves. (Genesis 3:7) After God rebuked them and told them the consequences of their sin, He made clothes out of skins for them. (Genesis 3:21) What was wrong with the fig leaves? God determined that they weren’t adequate clothing. Why not? I’m assuming “skins” refer to animal skins, which means the animal had to die. I believe God was setting up from the very beginning that sin requires a sacrifice in order to cover it.

Ultimately, Jesus is the only adequate covering. The fig leaves are like our efforts to clothe ourselves, but God says, “No, let Me clothe you.” If we have placed our faith in Jesus, our sin is paid for. We are clothed in Christ. In our experience, though, we still try to cover ourselves in different ways. We try to find meaning and purpose or fill our deepest longings with fig leaves.

There’s a unique personality test that can help us uncover where we have just fig leaves as opposed to Christ’s covering. It’s called the Enneagram. Although it’s very popular right now, it’s actually not new, but has been around in concept since ancient times. I enjoy taking personality tests and understanding myself better, so I took a free test online and ended up with a number and description that I didn’t think fit me very well. The types of questions it asked bothered me, also - questions about fear and negative motivations… I found it difficult to be honest because I kept thinking, “But I’m not supposed to be motivated by those things and I’m trying to NOT be motivated that way…” I took a couple different versions and kept coming up with different numbers every time I took it, which was very frustrating!

Then, I applied for a job where one question on the application asked for my Enneagram number. It included a test to take, so I took it again and came up with yet a different number. I didn’t feel like that answer fit me, either, so I responded “I don’t know” on the application. Later, I was frustrated with myself for not answering that question because I was afraid that it would look bad - like I didn’t want to take the time to take the test, which wasn’t true. The application also included a Strength Finders test, which I took and the results fit me perfectly. So I decided that the Enneagram just wasn’t for me.

Well, I couldn’t let it go. It kept coming up in conversations and as I waited to see if I’d get an interview from my application, I worried that my lack of a score would cost me my chance at the job. One morning, I decided to take the test again and try to be really honest. After all, we’re all motivated by different fears and things and maybe that’s what it was getting at. I did my best with brutal honesty and came up scoring a number 3 (which was different from the other results I had gotten at other times). Interesting.

Later that morning I was sitting in the orthodontist’s parking lot reading a book called, “The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery” by David Benner and low and behold, he brought up the Enneagram! I couldn’t believe it! The stupid test was popping up everywhere.

As I read Benner’s explanation of it, it finally made sense. The Enneagram is not your typical personality test.

“Unlike classifications of personality that are based on traits, the organizing principle of the Enneagram is deeper and less attractive. It zeros in on the fatal flaw, or basic sin, of each of nine personality types. No one should work with the Enneagram if what they seek is flattery.” (p. 63)

Ah. Now I get it. Unlike Strength Finders or Meyers Briggs, the Enneagram is basically an exposure of your deepest sin. No wonder I didn’t like the results! I find it sort of darkly funny that being a “3” (which I believe is my accurate number), I like to present myself in the best possible light and am sometimes willing to spin things so that’s the case. I kept getting different results because I was trying to spin the answers so I wouldn’t look so bad! Ouch.

Getting back to Adam and Eve, the Enneagram can help us figure out where we have tendencies to use fig leaves to make ourselves more acceptable to God, ourselves and others. Here’s a list of the Enneagram numbers and their core needs/wants:

Ones want to be perfect.

Twos want to be loved and needed.

Threes want to be successful.

Fours want to be special.

Fives want knowledge and fulfillment.

Sixes want security.

Sevens want to avoid pain.

Eights want power, to rely on themselves and to be against something.

Nines want emotional peace.

(Taken from Benner book mentioned above, p. 64-65)

None of those things are really bad, and all of us fall into multiple categories in one way or another. However, most of us will lean in one direction more than the others and it will impact our motives and actions. Those motivations become our fig leaves. A One, for example, may feel that if she can just be perfect, then she’ll be OK, rather than resting in God’s perfection. A Two strives for love and acceptance from others, rather than being content in God’s unconditional love and acceptance.

Many times our personal bent in these areas comes from our family of origin, which is a whole other discussion that I’m still exploring myself and will cover in a future blog post.

This is just scratching the surface, but I encourage you to try an Enneagram test and do some soul searching about what motivates you. My Spiritual Growth Journaling Guide may also help you as you try to understand yourself better.

Have you used the Enneagram? What have you discovered and how has it helped your walk with God?