The River of Me
By Jim Cofield
Rivers are amazing. They can snake their way through a mountainous terrain or flow straight through level land. They can be deep and fast flowing or shallow and slow. Each seems to have its own personality.
Rivers provide a great metaphor (if that is the correct figure of speech) for our souls. We each have a personality that displays itself in various ways depending on the surrounding terrain.
I think of it this way. The river of me has two main contributing streams. There is the stream of my DNA, my wiring displayed in my personality. The second stream is my family of origin. The two streams come together to form the ‘me’ that i am and how I will navigate the terrain of my relationships.
The value of the Enneagram is that it helps identify the DNA God gave me that contributes to my personality. It shows me my strengths and the vulnerabilities that my wiring gives me. Both my strengths and my vulnerabilities can be magnified or diminished by the relational world of my family of origin. The value of a Life Map shows me the effects of those early influences on my personality. A Life Map (where I write the events that I lived, the emotions I felt during those events, and the interpretation I gave to what I felt) helps me see both my wounds and my solidity of soul.
God is honored as we embrace the river of who we are. He uses it to love others well. So let the water of your soul flow freely and deeply, graciously and generously, with receptivity and vulnerability.