The Gospel for the Enneagram 7
The Enthusiast or Optimist
The 7’s: Enthusiast/Optimist
The 7’s value and long for God’s joy and delight. You know when you’re with a 7 because they don’t stop. Their life is one exciting and wonderful thing after another.
7’s have lots of irons in the fire and can’t abide anything that might curb their freedoms. They’re often good at making money because money expands their possibilities. They can talk and talk and talk about anything, and they seem to skim across the surface of life, nothing seems to bother them. They are the ones who change the subject or tell a joke when things get tense or too serious. And the 7’s do this because this is how they protect themselves from pain, suffering and boredom—all things that threaten their happiness.
Remember the 5’s fear the outer world so they retreat inside their minds. The 7’s are afraid of the dark inner world so they flee outside into non-stop activity. This leads to their basic sin, which is gluttony or consumption, defined as an insatiable appetite for more and more distractions, everything to the max to keep them safe from boredom and sorrow and limits. But they rationalize this sin by convincing themselves that they’re just enjoying life. They’re just being positive and it’s Christ-like to be full of joy!
Sometimes friends of the 7’s can think the 7’s are shallow, flaky, and can never be serious. The 7’s have depth; they’re just nervous about it.
Examples: Mozart, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Amelia Earhart, John F. Kennedy, Joe Biden, Elton John, Britney Spears, Steven Spielberg, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Robert Downey, Jr. as well as Iron Man. Some people think Solomon was a 7, trying everything under the sun.
You might notice a number of comedians in that list as well as inventors & explorers. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know if Thomas Jefferson invented so many things in order to avoid discomfort and pain?
The gospel for the Enneagram 7 is the good news of God’s comfort. When we find our comfort in God, and trust that he gives joy even in difficulties, we don’t need to fear boredom or sorrow or our childhood wounds.
Much-Afraid in the book Hinds Feet on High Places gives a beautiful image for a recovering 7’s. You may remember that the good shepherd gives two companions to Much-Afraid on her trip up the mountain. And the names of her companions are Sorrow and Suffering. When she holds their hands, she finds she is better able to resist the taunts of her old relatives, the Fearlings.
She makes friends with sorrow and suffering and, eventually, she learns to understand their language. God himself speaks in sorrow and suffering, and there is true delight in learning that language.
That’s the gospel for the Enneagram 7.