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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 918 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom
What Is the Enneagram? - Ask Gramps

Thank you for joining us for our five days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 918 of our trek, and it is time for our Philosophy Friday series. Each Friday we will ponder some of the basic truths and mysteries of life and how they can impact us in creating our living legacy.

As we continue on this trek called life, sometimes we have questions about life, so our Friday trek is a time when we can “Ask Gramps.” Gramps will answer questions that you would like to ask your dad or granddad, but for whatever reason are unable to. No matter how old we are, I know that all of us would like the opportunity to ask dad or gramps questions about life in many areas.

Starting this week, we are beginning a new series delving into what makes each of us respond as we do to life situations. Understanding this and how others may interpret life through their paradigm will allow us to interact with each other with love and compassion. We are going to take a deep dive into an ancient tool of wisdom that many scholars feel is based on a Christian perspective dating back to the early centuries after when Christ was on earth.

This tool is referred to as the Enneagram (Any-a-Gram) which refers to its 9 points (Ennea refers to 9, and Gram referring to a drawing). You can see a representation of the drawing below. We will start with a brief overview today, and with each subsequent “Ask Gramps” episode, we will do a deep dive into its strengths and potential weaknesses. This tool has experienced a very strong interest growth during the past 20 years and is now being taught in many Christian based ministries.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Throughout the years Paula and I have both used and marketed personality profile tools such and DISC, Myers Briggs, and Profiles International as hiring and management tools. While we think these tools are very useful, especially in a business or ministry situation, we also found that they were somewhat limited and focused primarily on outward personality traits and not core behavior traits.

When I started to discover the depth of the Enneagram, it opened up a new horizon of understanding of myself first, and is helping me to understand others better. The Enneagram is the most useful tool of this type I’ve encountered for personal growth.  Keep in mind though, it is still only a tool, and cannot replace or usurp the precepts that are found in God’s Word.   The questions for the next several week or months will be…

“Hey, Gramps, what makes certain people act and react to situations and circumstances in life? How can I gain wisdom to better understand myself and others so that I can love, serve, and minister to them on a deeper level?”
What is the Enneagram?


At first glance, the Enneagram might look like another “personality test,” and personality factors significantly into it. But it goes much deeper than that. It helps us see core fears, motivations, desires, strengths, blind spots, stressors, and sins that most often trip us up. When used in Christian contexts, it shows us aspects of God’s character and connects us more closely to the truth that we are made to be image bearers of Him and are to reflect him in the world.

As you can see from the symbol that is found in the Wisdom Journal for today, the Enneagram contains nine spaces or types, with each number representing a dominant personality, mindset, and core worldview. Each space also has a primary strength or gift that reflects an attribute of God and a primary struggle that emerges in insecurity or unhealthy behaviors.