Which Disney Princess are you most like? Which celebrity is your twin? What’s your super power?
Perhaps you enjoy the many available social media quizzes. Enjoyment is one thing. Reliability is another.
Assessments are helpful, but we’re sometimes too dependent on them. Instead of using them as a tool, we can depend on them to identify or direct us. It’s not just the frivolous ones but also the more popular ones. Enneagram, spiritual gifts, strengths assessments—there are plenty to choose from. Again, I’m not saying they’re bad. I’m not saying they’re inaccurate. But it’s important to remember they are tools. When we get a result, we must read them with a filter and incorporate next steps with wisdom.
Some of us are doubtful of any result. Others give it disproportional weight. What drives us toward such assessments and afterward is important to acknowledge. Algorithms might be consistent but they aren’t our most reliable source.
For a brief season of my life, I helped construct standardized tests. I learned a lot, and I struggle with some assessments to this day, making some assumptions about many of the questions and answers. But I don’t reject assessments; I simply try to keep them in context. I try to acknowledge the limitations.
I’m glad the one who truly knows me, designed me, directs me, prunes me has no limitations. He created the people who create the algorithms and write the books. He knows the answers to the assessment without knowing the questions. And I am his. He is my strength, and my goal is to be most like him than anything else.
Pure Purpose 