What Lent Looks Like Through the Lens of the Enneagram

Why do you do Lent? Why do you do Lent the way you do Lent? Deep down, what’s driving you this season?

I’ve found the Enneagram to be a tremendous tool for learning about myself and my relationships with God and others. Particularly, it has a way of spotlighting what motivates me, what drives me. For good and bad, it exposes to me my “why’s.”

If you’re not familiar with the Enneagram, check out the Enneagram Institute or The Road Back to You. If you don’t know your type, reach out to a spiritual director to begin a process of discernment together..

I’m a Type 5, sometimes called “The Observer.” I’m a compulsive learner. For me, Lent presents yet another exciting way to learn more about God.

It also means that one invitation for me is to do more than just think about it. I need to put one foot in front of the other and experience the wilderness.

I’ve been thinking about what Lent may look like for different Enneagram types. Do any of these ring true for you?

Type One: Getting Lent Right

Lent can be a means of getting things right. You come up with an ideal vision for engaging the season and share it with others. You may also beat yourself up when, after a week, you fall back into that habit you planned to give up.

Lent can look like attempting to control your spiritual life. Alternatively, it can look like surrendering control to the ancient rhythms of the Christian calendar.

For a One, an opportunity to grow deeper during Lent might look like remembering there are no prizes for doing Lent perfectly. Your inner critic isn’t always right. Count down the days to the joy, spontaneity, and fun of Easter.

Type Two: Fixing the World with Lent

If you’re a Two, you might be attuned to the ways Lent makes those around you feel. You might also feel particularly swayed by the temptation to share with others what you’re giving up for Lent in order to share that emotional weight of your sacrifice.

You may also be tempted to be like Fix-It Felix, trying to fix all the problems of the world on your own before Easter gets here. “Oh yeah, there’s sadness in the world, but let’s fix it now!”

A Lenten invitation for a Two might look like tending to your own self-care. Is your tank running empty? Be engaged in the world creatively ways that fill you up. Open yourself to receive love from those around you.

The Three: Winning at Lent

Like the One, you can make a plan and stick to it. But for you, it’s a fun challenge. Lent is a game and you’re out scoring as many points as you can.

You would never say this out loud, but you’re looking for a way to “win” at Lent. Can you do it better than you did last time? Can you do it better than your neighbor?

A Lenten invitation for a Three might look like investing yourself in your tribe (your family, church, neighborhood, or other group you belong to). Commit to seeing the whole group thrive and flourish, not just yourself. Know you are loved because you are, not because you accomplish.

Type Four: Feeling All the Lenten Feels

A whole season for making lament a spiritual discipline? What could be better? If only we all could experience the beautiful suffering of Lent all year.

That’s the internal monologue of the Four. Lent evokes rich feelings related to suffering and grief over sin in the world and in ourselves. And feelings are the playground of the Four.

A Lenten invitation for a Four might look like doing something with all these feelings and emotions. Don’t just wallow in them. Not every feeling is productive and healthy. Build something creative and useful and helpful to others.

Type Five: Thinking All the Lenten Thoughts

Lent for you may be an exciting new learning opportunity. You may find yourself signing up for or purchasing a dozen different Lent resources. You can never have too many resources, right?

The Five sees the bigger picture that Lent fits into. Lent is just one piece of the whole that is our Christian life and discipleship.

A Lenten invitation for a Five might look like focusing on one single thing. Instead of trying to absorb and do everything, just do one thing, and do it well. Make Lent about serving someone else. Make a difference for someone. Whatever you do, don’t arrive at Easter saying, “That was so interesting.”

Type Six: We All Deserve Lent

Maybe Lent is a way to feel safe with God. Perhaps participating in this way will be the thing to make you feel like God (or your faith community) isn’t mad at you. Practicing Lent is your way of navigating negative emotions like guilt and shame.

For the Six, a Lenten invitation may be to remember that Lent is merely the prelude to Easter and resurrection and new life. Relinquish the worst-case scenario of sinners in the hand of an angry God and embrace J.R.R. Tolkien’s idea of “eucatastrophe“—the unexpected twist in our story is unbelievably good.

Type Seven: Let’s Skip to Easter

A whole season for making lament a spiritual discipline? Are you crazy? Who came up with this idea? Is it Easter yet?

While the Four may want to live in always-Lent-never-Easter, the Seven is the opposite, wishing it was always-Easter-never-Lent.

It’s helpful for the Seven to remember that the 50-day feast of Eastertide is greater than the 40-day season of Lent. Furthermore, Sundays in Lent are still feast days for celebrating the resurrection in community. Slow down. Listen. Pay attention. There are good reasons for the season of Lent. Silence and solitude can be transformational companions in Lent.

Type Eight: Joining the Cause of Lent

You may find what excites you about Lent is raising issues of social justice. “Let’s fast to be in solidarity with the hungry. Let’s go without some of our favorite luxuries knowing there are people who never experience those things at all.”

Eights can see the effects of sin in the world through social issues like poverty, domestic violence, racism, trafficking, refugees or any other popular cause. For an Eight, it’s easy to turn Lent into a cause.

A Lenten invitation for an Eight might be to take an extra step in engaging in a relationship, could be a stranger, or could be a family member. And see them, really see them, and feel with them life as they feel it—to know them as a person and not just a cause to fight for.

Type Nine: I’ll Do What You’re Doing

Maybe you see all of these and think, “Yeah! That’s right! I want that!” You see things that are good and right in all of these responses to Lent and you want to experience or validate all of them.

Or perhaps for you, Lent is a way of going with the flow. You have a genuine and sincere appreciation for all the different ways people practice Lent. But here we are, with Easter on the horizon, and you still haven’t thought about what it means for you.

A Lenten invitation for a Nine might look like setting a goal, making a plan, and then seeing it through. Discover your own unique experience. Listen to what God is speaking uniquely to you and respond with decisive gusto.

So in which way do you experience the world? What’s your gut-level reaction when someone else brings up Lent?

And more importantly, what is Jesus revealing to you about yourself during Lent? What kind of person are you becoming because you practice Lent the way that you do?

What’s your invitation during this season?

What’s your encouragement to others who may experience the world similarly to you?