I was sitting under the Word of God being preached at my church recently where the topic was Self Help vs God’s Help. The Johari Window was mentioned as a good tool for discipleship.
The Johari window is quite a common tool used in the secular world to help us understand more about our conscious and unconscious biases. Doing this can help us improve self-awareness and also assist us when dealing with other people. It considers things from two axis – one being our perspective and the other being others’ perspective.
Open/Shared
In this first quadrant, we are dealing with things that are – as the name suggests – out in the open. Things in this quadrant are known to both you and to others. This covers parts of our self which we are aware of and it’s also obvious to others. Typically, it covers our attitudes, behaviour, motivation, values and way of life. Some version of the Johari window calls this the Shared space.
Through appropriate self-revelations and feedback from other people, over time, the Johari window can help you expand and grow the quadrant that is shared/open. Growth and how the window changes are where the journey of Christian discipleship helps.
Façade/Hidden
This quadrant addresses things we know about ourselves, but – either consciously or more rarely unconsciously - we choose to hide from other people. As we learn more about ourselves, our attitude will determine whether we allow the boundary between the open/shared quadrant to slowly reduce the hidden facades we may have.
Blind Spots
In this quadrant, we are dealing with things that are not known to you but other people can see and recognise. Typically, more mature people or your family may help you address your blind spots. Feedback is essential to addressing the boundary of your blind spots and reducing it whilst increasing the shared/open parts of your life.
Unknown/ God Knows
When this quadrant was described during the Sunday message, it was labelled as the one which only God knows, which I think is a beauty way to describe what is typically the “Unknown quadrant”. No one knows about this stuff, but from our Christian perspective, only God knows, and it is up to God to reveal these things to us, either as a form of self discovery and discipleship, or in partnership with others in a journey of shared discovery.
General Principles
Everyone has different sized quadrants. Individuals with a small open/shared quadrant are likely to be someone who discloses very little information about themselves, less receptive to feedback and new ideas. Individuals with a large open/shared quadrant tend to be emotionally balanced who are open to feedback and innovative.
The Gospel
The Gospel gives us God’s “feedback” as to our true condition. From Romans chapter 4, we are all sinners before God and no one can be found worthy or righteous. Prior to our journey of faith, discovery and then becoming a follower of Jesus, we tend to ignore the signs of our situation of sin.
In that initial state of not knowing, we can still be happy to be ignorant of the specific sins that separate us from the love of God. However, the moment we come to Christ and as we take the journey of discovery to grow closer to Jesus and understand His calling for each of us, then we develop that self awareness. No longer can we continue to live and love the sin in our lives. Encountering and living with the Holy Spirit in our lives daily means we will slowly be convicted of the God’s ways.
Self awareness in Christ is the foundation of self-control and maturity in Christ. Learning and discovering our identity in Christ, our own strengths and weaknesses, how sin has shaped our lives, are ways in which Holy Spirit leads us to repentance. With repentance, we draw closer to God.
Jesus: the mirror to our Sin
Calling ourselves Christian is but one step in the direction of finding God’s righteous, revealed in Jesus. In Mark chapter 10, a rich man came to Jesus and asked Him, “what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”. The response was to quote five of the Ten Commandments – which the rich man answered that he had followed all his life. Jesus then revealed the blind spot sin to the rich man, commanding him to go and sell everything he had, give to the poor and to come follow Him (Jesus). Jesus revealed to the rich man that the tenth commandment “thou shalt not covet”. Jesus also taught us that we cannot serve two masters.
No matter the grey areas of life, where we can debate about whether one rule or situation is sin or not, Jesus always raises the bar figuratively – at the end of the day, relationships matter over legalistic laws. If we as Christians do not integrate and infuse the right kind of judgement, mercy and faith, we cannot inherit eternal life. Even if we have gifts and are actively serving, if we cannot resolve and make peace in our relationships God cannot reconcile and overcome that brokenness.
We need to be attentive to our own Spiritual well-being by consciously working at the open/shared quadrant in our life. As Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, we need to take out our own planks in our eyes. Planks can create blind spots and removing them can only improve our relationships. God, in His perfect timing and way will also help us address things He only knows about.
Nic Lee works by day as a Business Analyst Consultant whilst, outside of business hours, maintains an IT support & website services business. He volunteers with 89.9 LightFM (Christian Community Radio). Nic has served for over twenty years in his local church, in worship, technology consulting, life group leading and event management.