“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
By pursuing self-knowledge, we can begin to scratch the surface of that which lies within us. Cambridge Dictionary defines self-knowledge as an understanding of yourself and your abilities. It is crucial to have self-knowledge for us to foster harmony in our lives. If we lack self-knowledge, we will operate mindlessly, being tossed about aimlessly by the circumstances we encounter or we end up groping around for clues as though in the dark of night.
Part of self-knowledge is also being aware and content about things that are beyond our ability. David in the Psalms says “such matters are too wonderful for me to look into” . The prayer of serenity also speaks to this. It goes as follows:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Reinhold Niebuhr
I think the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) shows how David had self-knowledge.
War broke out between the Philistines and the Israelites. They gathered at a place that had a valley to face each other. The Philistine army was on one hill and the Israelite army led by King Saul was on the opposite hill. They were separated by a valley with a stream. The Philistines had a giant named Goliath in their camp, he was many times bigger than any of the Philistines or Israelites. Goliath came forward and shouted profanities at the Israelite army, he was defiant. He told the Israelites to choose one man to come fight against him and if the man defeated him, the Philistines would become their slaves. If Goliath won, the Israelites would become slaves to the Philistines. Everyone in the ranks of Israel including King Saul were afraid of Goliath, they trembled in fear at the prospect of going to fight him. Goliath routinely came out to defy the army of Israel and mock them for 40 days. No one came forward to fight him. King Saul made an offer to any one who would go fight Goliath that he would be given the King’s daughter in marriage and his entire family would be exempt from taxation.
David was a shepherd boy, his 3 oldest brothers had joined Saul’s army and were camping out to fight the Philistines. His father Jesse tasked him to go to the army camp and bring a word on how his brothers were faring on. The father gave him a basket of roasted grain, 10 loaves of bread and 10 cuts of cheese to give to their captain. So David left the sheep with another shepherd and set out early the following morning to do what his father had directed. He arrived at the Israelite camp just as they were heading out to the battlefield with shouts and battle cries. David left his things with the keeper of supplies and ran to greet his brothers. As he was talking to them, Goliath came out as usual to taunt the Israelite army.
As soon as the Israelite army saw Goliath, they began to run away in fear. The men told David, “have you seen the giant? He comes out each day to defy and taunt Israel. The king has offered a huge reward to anyone who kills him. He will give that man one of his daughters as a wife and the man’s entire family will be exempted from paying taxes!” David confirmed this statement with several soldiers who were standing nearby. They all confirmed that this was the reward for
the man who would kill Goliath. David asked some more soldiers about this. Eventually, David’s questioning was reported to King Saul and the King sent for him. David told Saul “ Don’t worry about this Philistine, I’ll go and fight him!” Saul told David “Don’t be ridiculous, there is no way you can fight this giant Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy and he’s been a man of war since his youth!” But David insisted on going to fight Goliath. He said “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats. Whenever a bear or a lion attacked the flock and stole a lamb, I would go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turned to attack me, I would grab it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done it to both lions and bears and I will do it to this Philistine too.The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and bear, will rescue me from this Philistine!”
So King Saul finally consented and said “Alright, go ahead and may the Lord be with you!”Then Saul gave David his own armor, a bronze helmet and a coat of mail or a metallic coat. David tried them on, strapped the sword over the coat and took a step or two to see what it was like to wear these, since he had never worn something like this before. He told Saul, “I can’t go in these, I am not used to them!” So he took them off. He took 5 smooth stones from a stream and put them in his shepherd bag. He was only armed with his shepherd’s staff and sling. He ran across the valley to go fight Goliath.
Goliath walked out toward David with with his shield bearer and sneered in contempt at this boy coming towards him. He said “ Am I a dog that you come to me with a stick?” He cursed David, then he yelled “Come over here, and I will give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!”
David replied, “ you come to me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s armies, whom you have defied. Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. Everyone assembled here will know that the LORD rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the LORD’S battle and he will give you to us!”
As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit Goliath on the forehead. The stone sank in and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.
Among the factors that brought David victory that day such as his faith in God Almighty was self-knowledge. He knew what he was capable of achieving and what would hinder him. He also knew who was backing him, the LORD of Heaven’s armies. Self-knowledge enabled him to have the fortitude to say no to the King’s offer. This was courageous in itself but it was clear for him because he had self-knowledge. Self-knowledge accompanied by other factors such as faith, boldness and courage can enable us to fell giants we encounter in our wake.
There are a number of theories, methods and categorizations that have been developed over the years to help us know and understand ourselves. I will look as some of these methods or categorizations below:
- Extrovert or Introvert – people can broadly be categorized in these two ways. You are either one or the other. By way of description, an extrovert gets energized by being around other people, an introvert gets energized by being in contemplation on their own. Being away from people drains the energy of an extrovert while being around people drains the energy of the introvert.
- The four temperaments – these are Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic. This is a further breakdown of the aspects of being extroverted -sanguine and choleric or being introverted – Melancholy and Phlegmatic. Each individual is unique and has any combination of these four temperaments with some being more dominant than others.
- The four temperaments have been broken down further into 16 personality types by work done by Carl Jung,Myers Briggs, David Kiersey. There are tools based on the Jung, MyersBriggs and Kiersey theories that aid people to figure out their personality types.
I think knowing one’s personality type is a good way to start in the journey to self-knowledge. Having self-knowledge enhances our prospects of living an inspired harmonious life. You will begin to understand why you behave the way you do, your strengths and your weaknesses. It will enable you to have understanding and empathy towards others. You will understand that we are all different and we view things differently. However, fundamentally, you will see that you are unique and valuable once you have self-knowledge.
The more we know ourselves, our nuances, our strengths, our weaknesses and what we are about, the more inspired and harmonious life we will live.
