Gwen and I were talking the other day about the idea that there are positives and negatives about both having patience and having a sense of urgency. As I examine myself, I am more prone to think than act. In Mark 2:8, “Jesus perceived in his spirit…” It’s fascinating to me that I might become sensitive enough to be aware of those around me and “perceive in my spirit” if they are more prone to wait or act. Knowing myself and knowing them, I can then make conscious decisions about how to interact with them on different subjects. Can I understand others’ reticence to make a move? Can I know why someone just can’t wait another minute to make it happen? Should I urge caution and patience? Or, should I urge to seize the moment? I’m starting to believe that this is essential in understanding people’s spirits and my own.
That reminds me, you may have heard the saying that goes something like this:
“Some people dream about what might happen.
Some people watch things happen.
Some people make things happen.
Some people wonder what happened?”
This saying is meant (I think) to glorify the people that “make things happen,” and demean the others. As I think about it, though, I think that there are positives and negatives to each of these strategies and that there is a season for each.
When a dreamer does little besides dream, it is an area of concern. If the dreamers dreams are always nightmares, s/he may become paralyzed with fear. But, put to constructive use, dreamers are creative, planners, organizers, visionaries without whom we would stumble blindly into the future.
Watchers can have a tendency to be uninvolved. They “let” things happen around them. They might feel powerless to control events that unfold. On the other hand, their powers of observation may be acute. Their ability to accurately record an event or events may prove vital.
Wonderers have a lot in common with dreamers, only they look backwards instead of forwards. If one focuses solely on what has been with regrets, then it becomes self-destructive. On the constructive side, wonderers are those who become historians, who analyze how and why things happened the way they did. They study people. They can put forward ideas on how not to repeat the failures of the past.
Doers are the ones that most people admire. When it comes right down to it, they implement what the dreamers dream, perform the acts that the watcher observes and that the wonderers analyze. Their areas of concern are that they can be impatient with planning, don’t want to follow directions, and can look down on the other personality types.
If I can learn to value and encourage the constructive side of the strategies that people employ (myself included) and learn how to discourage them from the destructive side of their outlook on life (myself included), then I can increase my value to God and man. What a great dream!
