Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Johari and Jesus


This is the Johari Window.  Its a tool used in psychology to help people in their self-awareness.  The person  is given a list of adjectives and they choose the five or six that describe them.  Their peers are then given the same list and they choose five or six that describe the person as well.  Then, all the adjectives are placed in one of the quadrants you see in the diagram above. 

Adjectives that are selected by both the participant and his or her peers are placed into the Open quadrant. This quadrant represents traits of the participant of which both they and their peers are aware.

Adjectives selected only by the participant, but not by any of their peers, are placed into the Hidden quadrant, representing information about the participant of which their peers are unaware.

Adjectives that are not selected by the participant but only by their peers are placed into the Blind Spot quadrant. These represent information of which the participant is not aware, but others are, and they can decide whether and how to inform the individual about these "blind spots".

Adjectives which were not selected by either the participant or their peers remain in the Unknown quadrant, representing the participant's behaviors or motives which were not recognized by anyone participating.

Its just interesting to think about.  I'm most curious about the blind spots.  What is it that I don't know about myself but others seem to recognize? I'm reminded of several instances in scripture where Jesus pointed out a blind spot in someone that challenged them on the deepest level:  The rich young man he told to sell everything he had.  The conversation with Nicodemus.  The paralytic lowered from the roof in Luke 5:17-26 and the paralytic in Mathew 9:17...both were forgiven of their sins even though the presenting issues was physical.  The woman at the well in John 4.  There's many other examples.

Jesus often exposes people's blind spots to correct their understanding of God.  Jesus' primary purpose while on earth was to reunite people to a right understanding and right relationship with God.  To do that, he had to challenge people's view of themselves and of God.  I believe He's still doing that.

We don't know what we don't which means we have to ask God to reveal what we don't know about Him to us.  I believe God is more than willing to continually reveal Himself to us, if we would just surrender.

May you have the courage to ask God to show you what you don't know about yourself and about Him.

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