Book #18: Sacred Pathways

According to Gary Thomas, the author of Sacred Pathways, there are nine different spiritual temperaments.  A spiritual temperament refers to a way in which a certain person best worships God.  Thomas stresses throughout the book that all nine temperaments are vital to full worship of God and development of one's Christain maturity, but that some of us worship better in some ways than in others.

Enthusiast: likes to "let go and experience God on the precipice of excitement and awe." (p. 152)

Contemplative: worships best in adoration of God, like Mary in the story of Martha and Mary (see Luke 10:38-42)

Intellectual: likes to worship with the mind, by studying in depth certain passages of scripture, church history, apologetics, etc.

Caregiver: finds joy and God's presence in the acts of caring for others

Sensate: worships and connects with God through taste, smell, touch, sound, and sight

Ascetic: likes to worship through aloneness, simplicity, and self-discipline

Naturalist: connects with God by connecting with His creation

Activist: loves God by "standing up for righteousness" (p. 116)

Traditionalist: worships through rituals and religious practices.

The most important part of any temperament, any worship, or any relationship with God, however, is not how one worships but that one's worship focuses on God and not on self.  Should anyone lose sight of this, his relationship with God will suffer for it and his worship will not be worship at all but merely a routine or habit that he performs without any benefit for himself or glory for God.

Many thanks to Cailey for lending me this book and thereby encouraging my walk with Christ!