Osler's Razor

A long time ago, I took the Myers-Briggs personality-typing test and was categorized as an INFJ, described here. That means that I am (to some degree) an introvert, intuitive, feeling, and judgmental.

What often surprises people about that is that I am an introvert, but it is a completely accurate assessment. I'm not only comfortable being alone, there are times I really need to be alone, and thrive on that. It's how I gather myself.

I don't feel like this is a negative trait, though sometimes people who are more social than I am think it is odd. I see this trait, though, in other people whose spirituality I really admire, like Susan Stabile. Christ, of course, sometimes needed solitude-- he would leave everyone else and go to be alone. Even in a group, he had ways to remove himself, such as in John 8, when he writes on the ground, off from the crowd.

I'm not Christ, and can't say I know what he was doing there, but I do understand that instinct in my own way.

We are, I think, called to community-- after all, the church is nothing less than that, and Christ directed us to communal worship. It is important to be a part of the group. For some of us, though, we also need that time alone to be whole and at peace, and that is within Christ's spirit, too.

Those two poles which compete for our time, quiet solitude and communion with others, correlate to the two great commandments-- because to love our God, we must listen quietly to and for him, and to love one another, we must share in joy and sorrow together. It is a duality that makes a whole... and we all do seek to be whole, on the many paths before us..