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ONE

Gut types engage directly with the world – so any judgment on what they do, whether criticism or praise, feels like a judgment on who they are.

EIGHTs and NINEs just shrug this off – ‘who cares what other people think’ – but ONEs are the gut types with a secondary heart influence. ONEs do care what other people think.

And being intuitive gut types, ONEs sense every judgment of approval or disapproval from others whether it is spoken or not. Those judgments then echo around inside, where they become like an ever-present internal critic – a powerful gut-level conscience – passing judgment on every thought, feeling, and action.

Determined to attract more approval and to avoid all disapproval, the strategy of ONEs is to be ‘on their best behavior’ – to be ‘good’ by the standards of the powerful conscience within. They then expect the same of others: on the small scale, on the universal scale, and everywhere in between, ONEs long for everything to be done well. ONEs become perfectionists and idealists.

The perfectionist’s eye for detail makes ONEs into great engineers, accountants, judges, and lawyers. Wherever it is important that something is done with precision – design issues, safety issues, legal or financial matters, organizing a major project – ONEs are indispensable, being both thorough and efficient, including whatever is necessary, and excluding whatever is not.

The parable of the lost sheep is the parable for ONEs: everyone else is really happy that there are ninety-nine sheep in the sheepfold – ninety-nine is plenty, and the day’s work is done – but while everyone else relaxes at the end of the day, ONE is out on the hills alone in the dark and the rain looking for the one lost sheep. ONEs are the ones who will always make sure that no detail – and no individual – is ever overlooked, and they will carry on, patient and steadfast, until their work is done. ONEs have limitless energy in the service of idealism and fairness to all (Matthew 18:12‑14; Luke 15:3‑7).

The potential gifts of ONE include patience and serenity. ONEs can take on a complex task and see it through to completion: they can see the end of a defined task from its beginning, and all the stages in between, and they can attend to the task – to put everything exactly right – with perfect patience, ticking off the stages as they go, even under huge pressure or in the midst of a crisis. And in a serious crisis or emergency, efficient and thorough ONEs can remain calm and composed: they remain ‘on their best behavior,’ and assess what actually needs to be done, and then efficiently attend to it; their moment has come to be the good boy scout or the good girl guide. ONEs can keep their heads when all around are losing theirs: even in complex stressful times, ONEs will work on and on toward completion and perfection.

The danger for ONEs is that this visionary idealism can become judgmental and unforgiving toward all that is less than perfect – in others, and in themselves. Being judgmental and unforgiving toward others, they can be self-righteous and hypocritical on the outside. Being judgmental and unforgiving toward themselves, they can at the same time be suffering low self-esteem on the inside.

These are clear and unambiguous dangers: the temptation that creeps up on ONE far more subtly is anger. ONE’s anger begins as ‘righteous anger’ at the injustice and imperfection of the world. It is compounded by frustration at the imperfections in self and others. It can build into a continuous, rumbling, low-level, frustrated, ‘free floating’ anger – just waiting for something on which to alight. The slightest incidence of real or perceived unfairness then sparks the fuse, and the anger of ONE ignites – and is slow to calm. Being patronized is an unfairness that ONEs cannot bear, and it is guaranteed to ignite a ONE on a short fuse. As ONE tries to maintain the ‘good’ exterior, the anger is often repressed, and suffered far more by ONE than by others.

The cartoon animals for ONE are the terrier – noisily yapping and snapping away – and the ant and bee – busy, busy, busy about their task.

The national stereotype for ONE would be Switzerland – for the clocks, and the watches, and the banks, and those efficient little army knives.

In the Bible, Paul is ONE. It is important to Paul to explain, with clarity and completeness, exactly how the crucifixion makes salvation possible, how grace and law interact or oppose each other, how one era ends and a new era begins – exactly how God does God’s work of salvation. This is all very ONE: others would be less concerned to give such a detailed, almost mechanical, account. But it is in precisely these details that Paul finds his limitless energy for the proclamation of the gospel, and his dogged determination to see the Gentiles included in God’s new work in Christ – when others are disinterested or even opposed. The vast majority of Christian people today came to hear the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ by way of Paul’s ONE: his clarity about God’s work of salvation, and his long and principled stand for the inclusion of the Gentiles without their needing to submit to the Hebrew law. It is no surprise that Luther, also ONE, found his inspiration in Paul: reforming zeal is ONE.

ONEs set out on the path from corruption to redemption by relaxing a little – by letting the spring unwind. In practical terms, for ONEs, this usually means deliberately programming some recreation and leisure into their detailed, busy schedules. ONEs on the path to redemption will learn to learn from others, who think in a different way, and learn to accommodate the imperfections of themselves and the rest of the world – learn that it is OK to be human. A major milestone for ONEs is the day they learn with confidence to challenge the nagging internal critic: to stand up to it and assert their freedom to choose otherwise – even to do something reckless or pointless, just for fun, just to be fully alive.

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