Two things you should know about me: I LOVE a good psychological personality test (Myers Briggs, Enneagram, The Big Five, etc.) and I am a rebel.
Recently, someone turned me on to a new personality test (an impressive feat within itself because I have taken almost all of them) called the Four Tendencies Quiz by Gretchen Rubin, a world renown writer and self proclaimed, “moral essayist.”1 The Four Tendencies are Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel, and which tendency you fall into is a reflection of how you respond to outer and inner expectations. From Rubin’s website:
“We all face two kinds of expectations—outer expectations (meet work deadlines, answer a request from a friend) and inner expectations (keep a New Year’s resolution, start meditating). Our response to expectations determines our 'Tendency'—that is, whether we fit into the category of Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, or Rebel.”2
In short, your tendency is a reflection of how you respond to rules (If you’d like to take the quiz for yourself, click here).
Going into it, I was 100% certain that I would be an “Upholder,” the most law abiding of the four options. I am, what one might call, a “goody two shoes.” I was that kid in school that everyone hated because when the teacher said write five pages, I wrote eight. I attended church every Sunday and volunteered on a regular basis. I was never grounded. I have kept most if not all my New Year’s resolutions. I have a seemingly unlimited supply of willpower. I always make sure to drive the speed limit. I have to finish every book I start, even if it's terrible. I am constantly seeking the approval of those I respect. And even when no one is watching, I do the right thing. I don’t think a single one of my friends or family would describe me as a rebel. I get that I sound like a nerd here, but that is how laughable the idea is that I would ever be described as a rebel.
Which is why I had to do a double take when my screen lit up with the results of my test. In big red letters across the screen was the word: REBEL. It had to be a mistake. There was no way I identified with the tendency that is most widely known for, “doing what they want to do,” when they want to do it.3 The compassionate friend and the productivity tzar in me simultaneously cringed as I read those words. Was I really that selfish? Was I really that lazy?
Then I read the tagline of the Rebel: “You can’t make me, and neither can I.”4 My first response to those words: “We’ll just see about that.” The rebel in me was resisting the label of rebel. Oh, the irony! Okay, so maybe this theory did share some weight. As I read further, a few more items came to light:5
“If you ask or tell [Rebels] to do something, they're very likely to resist.” I vaguely remember telling my mom the other day that the more she asks me to take out the garbage the less I want to do it.
This also may explain my unquenchable desire to get a tattoo. Props to my parents though. They fought long and hard on that one.
Rebels “do things in their own time.” It may cross my mind once or a thousand times a day that, “I don’t feel like working out right now. I’ll do it later.”
Rebels “resist all expectations.” When choosing which college to attend, I found pride in choosing the least likely option. Teachers were convinced I would attend an Ivy League. Nope. Friends and family were convinced I’d stay close to home. Nope. I actually remember my mother making this comment to me during the admissions process: “I don’t care where you go as long as you don’t pick the school furthest away.” Guess which school I picked.
A similar thought process was adopted when choosing my desired career path. Doing as well in school as I did, many assumed that I would enter into a high-paying career. I wouldn’t change my decision for anything, but following the call to go into ministry may partially have been motivated by my father’s comment during a car ride that, “You can help people and still make a ton of money. Like being a judge.”
These are just a few examples, but I was starting to see how “rebel” may have been a more accurate description of me than I first believed. What put the nail in the coffin though was the core strategy Rubin offers to help lovingly motivate rebels: The Strategy of Identity. In her blog post, Habit Strategies and Tips for Rebels, Rubin says this:
“For Rebels, the most effective habit-change strategy is the Strategy of Identity. Because Rebels place great value on being true to themselves, they can embrace a habit if they view it as a way to express their identity.”6
The next logical question then is, “What do I consider to be my identity?” For me, this was an easy question to answer: I am a follower of Jesus. This is where I find my identity. Then it all started to make sense. I performed well in school because this was an opportunity to use the gift of learning God had bestowed on me. I started working out because I viewed this time as a way to get closer to God. I read 2-3 books a week because I consider learning about the lives and experiences of humanity to be part of God’s commandment to love others. I complete tasks at work with efficiency because other people are counting on me. I volunteer because Jesus helped others. I surf because this is where I can most easily feel the Holy Spirit. All my actions, that on the surface seem like examples of a boring rule follower, are actually manifestations of my spirit of rebellion seeking to bring Jesus into our disordered world.
My favorite stories about Jesus, as many of my students can attest to, are when Jesus flips the script and catches everyone off guard with His teachings. There are numerous examples of this in the gospel of John. Jesus reveals his rebel spirit constantly, as He makes proclamations that can only be described as “sassy” to the Pharisees and Jews alike. For example, in John 10:2-25, the Jews make a request of Jesus: “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus’ trite response: “I did tell you, but you did not believe.”7 Additionally, an often overlooked part of the famous Feeding of the Five Thousand story, is Jesus’ afterward in which he says, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill.”8 In other words, “some of you just came for the free food!” I love these instances because this is where Jesus challenges us. He challenges our motivations and calls us to a greater purpose of love. Jesus is a rebel because He challenges the status quo. He does the opposite of what people expect of Him.
Furthermore, Jesus is the ULTIMATE rebel because He challenged what people expected a rebel to be. At the time of Jesus’ ministry, the Jewsih people were living under Roman rule. They were not the champions of their own land. Instead they lived in fear of their political leaders. Throughout history we see that under such conditions of oppression, people seek revolution. The Jewish people were no exception. They anticipated the Messiah to be a warrior and a political revolutionary. They expected a rebel who would overthrow Rome and declare the land once again to be under Jewish law. Jesus, being the true rebel, completely obliterated these expectations by claiming, “I am the bread of life... [and] whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”9 Jesus made it clear that His kingdom will be established in heaven, not in the physical world. Therefore, not only is Jesus a rebel in how He ushers in an identity of radical love, but also in how He redefines what true rebellion is.
This is my identity as a follower of Christ: a child of true rebellion. Rebellion that rejects the expectations of the world and of others and puts Jesus at the center. If Jesus was a rebel, then so am I.
Footnotes:
*all quotes from this section come from the text and video found at this URL
7 John 10:2-25
8 John 6:26
9 John 6:51
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