From intj-thoughts.tumblr.com
Monday, February 15, 2016
Monday, February 8, 2016
Symbolism
Nearly everything is symbolic.
I've told someone before that I would easily be superstitious if I didn't believe in God. Weird, right? Doesn't seem like an INTJ. But one can be superstitious and atheistic, and I have no doubt that I would be both had God not intervened in my life.
One can deny the existence of God all day long, but I think any IN-J type would have a hard time denying the compelling evidence of relationships between probably unrelated things. You get bad dreams about someone and soon afterwards, something terrible happens to them. You've recently been thinking on the brevity of your childhood, and you find that the community playground is being reconstructed into a bank.
On the basic level of explaining the relationship between Ni and Se functions*, Dr. A.J. Drenth says it very well:
"What seems to be occurring is that many INJs have a highly sensitive inferior function, Extraverted Sensation (Se), which gathers copious amounts of sensory information from the outside world, including subtleties that other personality types tend to miss. Their Ni then subconsciously processes this data in order to make sense of it, like assembling pieces of a puzzle. Once finished, Ni generates an impression that seems to come out of 'nowhere'".
These subtleties are often of a symbolic nature for me. And I would venture to say that this is because I believe in God.
Our God is a symbolic God. He uses parallels, motifs, and metaphors, just like you'd find in a work of classic literature -- not to throw us into confusion, but as part of the perfect design He has for this universe. There's already overwhelming evidence of this design, but God also includes this deeper layer of architecture for the ones whom He has created to understand it.
The Bible is God's work of classic literature, and that's where we find examples of his symbolism. The rainbow after the flood, a promise never to drown the earth again; Martha compared to her sister Mary, a picture of religion versus relationship; and the most poignant of all, the sacrificial lamb finally fulfilled by the death of Jesus.
Today, I see God arranging the entirety of His creation to reflect his plan. The smallest streams of the river of His design all connect into one. And if He is the commander of snow, trees, armies, stars, animals, words, governments, music, time . . . why would He not command them to accomplish His will, even at the most microscopic level?
Recently I was having a hard night, and I had shut myself in my room in complete darkness. I was silently screaming out to God, desperate for answers to some of my deepest problems. Pacing back and forth across my floor, I only grew more and more frantic, when suddenly . . . the lights flickered on.
I froze. I darted over to the outlet to which the string lights were connected. The only way to turn the lights on was to plug them in, and I had left the end of the cord just barely hanging out of the outlet. Though I hadn't touched the lights, they had reconnected themselves to the power source.
And I realized that God was reconnecting me to His source of unending strength and love.
I see these patterns everywhere. In the weather, in the city, in everything. I see it in the people who show up at church; I see it in the sailboats on our lake. I see it in anniversaries and natural disasters.
I wonder if I'm the only one sometimes -- is this an INTJ thing? I'd love to know. Any INTJs who have thoughts, feel free to comment. (I love getting comments on my posts because it gives me hope that society could actually be interested in things of such cerebral nature.)
*If you don't know about cerebral functions, don't panic. I didn't for a long time either. You can do an Internet search or wait for an upcoming post which will explain them in full.
I've told someone before that I would easily be superstitious if I didn't believe in God. Weird, right? Doesn't seem like an INTJ. But one can be superstitious and atheistic, and I have no doubt that I would be both had God not intervened in my life.
One can deny the existence of God all day long, but I think any IN-J type would have a hard time denying the compelling evidence of relationships between probably unrelated things. You get bad dreams about someone and soon afterwards, something terrible happens to them. You've recently been thinking on the brevity of your childhood, and you find that the community playground is being reconstructed into a bank.
On the basic level of explaining the relationship between Ni and Se functions*, Dr. A.J. Drenth says it very well:
"What seems to be occurring is that many INJs have a highly sensitive inferior function, Extraverted Sensation (Se), which gathers copious amounts of sensory information from the outside world, including subtleties that other personality types tend to miss. Their Ni then subconsciously processes this data in order to make sense of it, like assembling pieces of a puzzle. Once finished, Ni generates an impression that seems to come out of 'nowhere'".
These subtleties are often of a symbolic nature for me. And I would venture to say that this is because I believe in God.
Our God is a symbolic God. He uses parallels, motifs, and metaphors, just like you'd find in a work of classic literature -- not to throw us into confusion, but as part of the perfect design He has for this universe. There's already overwhelming evidence of this design, but God also includes this deeper layer of architecture for the ones whom He has created to understand it.
The Bible is God's work of classic literature, and that's where we find examples of his symbolism. The rainbow after the flood, a promise never to drown the earth again; Martha compared to her sister Mary, a picture of religion versus relationship; and the most poignant of all, the sacrificial lamb finally fulfilled by the death of Jesus.
Today, I see God arranging the entirety of His creation to reflect his plan. The smallest streams of the river of His design all connect into one. And if He is the commander of snow, trees, armies, stars, animals, words, governments, music, time . . . why would He not command them to accomplish His will, even at the most microscopic level?
Recently I was having a hard night, and I had shut myself in my room in complete darkness. I was silently screaming out to God, desperate for answers to some of my deepest problems. Pacing back and forth across my floor, I only grew more and more frantic, when suddenly . . . the lights flickered on.
I froze. I darted over to the outlet to which the string lights were connected. The only way to turn the lights on was to plug them in, and I had left the end of the cord just barely hanging out of the outlet. Though I hadn't touched the lights, they had reconnected themselves to the power source.
And I realized that God was reconnecting me to His source of unending strength and love.
I see these patterns everywhere. In the weather, in the city, in everything. I see it in the people who show up at church; I see it in the sailboats on our lake. I see it in anniversaries and natural disasters.
I wonder if I'm the only one sometimes -- is this an INTJ thing? I'd love to know. Any INTJs who have thoughts, feel free to comment. (I love getting comments on my posts because it gives me hope that society could actually be interested in things of such cerebral nature.)
*If you don't know about cerebral functions, don't panic. I didn't for a long time either. You can do an Internet search or wait for an upcoming post which will explain them in full.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
The Difference Between Other People and Me, Summed Up in a Blog Post, Basically
Other people: *Don't know what I think of them*
Me: *Doesn't care what other people think of me*
--
I'm a morning person, but only because the rest of society is up early and thus constrains my window of productivity. Scientifically speaking, it would be much healthier for me to sleep in until nine.
I get up early so that I can get stuff done. I feel like my day is wasted when I sleep past eight.
I get up early so that I can get stuff done. I feel like my day is wasted when I sleep past eight.
Saturday, January 9, 2016
What This INTJ is Like
A few words to describe me: Systematic, exploring, intellectual
Pastimes: Writing on this blog *winks awkwardly*, drawing, skateboarding, researching random topics, baking, learning French
Weird things I like to do: Macramé, collect vinyl records, learn how to become ambidextrous, yoga, learn American Sign Language
Favorite memories: Things like playing in the creek behind our old house or listening to my dad play guitar as I fell asleep. Old childhood stuff.
A few favorite stories: Les Misérables, Interstellar, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Great Gatsby, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Inception, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (gah there are too many)
I would mention my favorite music, but there is definitely too much to pick favorites from.
Passions (INTJs are passionate about a few select things): Stories, knowledge, psychology
How I dress: I care a lot about what I wear and what my hair looks like whenever I'm trying to convey who I am. Sometimes that means I'm wearing mismatched clothes and no makeup. But usually my style falls somewhere between a confused grunge girl from the 90s and a skater who hasn't changed clothes in four days. Something like this:
Things I'm really good at: Grammar and vocabulary, memory, organizing just about anything
Things I'm really bad at: Caring about people, walking, math
Other interesting facts: I had a pixie cut for a few months. I know Morse code. My favorite color is orange. I know one song on the piano. I LOVE big cities, especially Dallas.
Yep, that's what I'm like. A few things don't match up on the surface level. I should be a lot better at math, but I guess I don't care enough about it - it's too superficial for me. I still don't really understand why I like yoga, but I LOVE it. It just seems like more of a sensor-feeler thing to me, but maybe I'm wrong.
But personality type doesn't determine everything, and only you should decide who you are. --
Pastimes: Writing on this blog *winks awkwardly*, drawing, skateboarding, researching random topics, baking, learning French
Weird things I like to do: Macramé, collect vinyl records, learn how to become ambidextrous, yoga, learn American Sign Language
Favorite memories: Things like playing in the creek behind our old house or listening to my dad play guitar as I fell asleep. Old childhood stuff.
A few favorite stories: Les Misérables, Interstellar, The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Great Gatsby, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Inception, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (gah there are too many)
I would mention my favorite music, but there is definitely too much to pick favorites from.
Passions (INTJs are passionate about a few select things): Stories, knowledge, psychology
How I dress: I care a lot about what I wear and what my hair looks like whenever I'm trying to convey who I am. Sometimes that means I'm wearing mismatched clothes and no makeup. But usually my style falls somewhere between a confused grunge girl from the 90s and a skater who hasn't changed clothes in four days. Something like this:
Things I'm really good at: Grammar and vocabulary, memory, organizing just about anything
Things I'm really bad at: Caring about people, walking, math
Other interesting facts: I had a pixie cut for a few months. I know Morse code. My favorite color is orange. I know one song on the piano. I LOVE big cities, especially Dallas.
Yep, that's what I'm like. A few things don't match up on the surface level. I should be a lot better at math, but I guess I don't care enough about it - it's too superficial for me. I still don't really understand why I like yoga, but I LOVE it. It just seems like more of a sensor-feeler thing to me, but maybe I'm wrong.
But personality type doesn't determine everything, and only you should decide who you are. --
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
About INTJ.
It's fun being me. It also feels impossible sometimes. But the apparent impossibility is what keeps me trying. Trying to defy it. It keeps me alive --
Welcome to the Blog.
First, realize what you're dealing with:
I know the image is freaking big. I hate it too. But it's hard to read otherwise.
Hopefully you already knew about MBTI before coming here. Because I can't think of another valid reason why someone would visit a blog called The INTJ's Microscope.
But yes, you're reading the words of a very rare, very contrary mind. And it makes life (and this blog, hopefully) quite interesting.
Chances are that this blog will actually go nowhere - that's what I tend to do with these kinds of things. However, my hope is that I'll actually dedicate myself and develop this into something excellent.
Why a blog? Well, it's not an uncommon thing for introverts to do, but it actually surprises me that INTJ blogs in particular are so widespread. I didn't expect myself to jump on the bandwagon. (I'm typically the one running at full speed away from a bandwagon.) I suppose that the rarity of INTJs makes them search for fellowship. I can see that, I suppose. I can't say I understand it. Well, I can, but I'll be lying.
My reasons for starting a blog were in no part a quest for community. *throws up* I started it because I realized that my mind is unique, and perhaps it piques the curiosities of some. Really, this blog is for the readers' benefit, a gracious gift from me.
I promise I'm going to try to tone down the arrogance.
Another reason, a hope I have, is that perhaps I may defy a few stereotypes about my personality type. (I'm all about defying stereotypes.) (And parentheses, apparently.) Keep reading, and I just might surprise you. And myself. Because it would really surprise me if this blog actually survived longer than a month.
I hope to get my best friend on the case. He's an ENFP, and a genius when it comes to design and programming. He'll get this thing looking mighty fine soon enough. More on him later, trust me.
I'm going to bed because I need sleep.
I know the image is freaking big. I hate it too. But it's hard to read otherwise.
Hopefully you already knew about MBTI before coming here. Because I can't think of another valid reason why someone would visit a blog called The INTJ's Microscope.
But yes, you're reading the words of a very rare, very contrary mind. And it makes life (and this blog, hopefully) quite interesting.
Chances are that this blog will actually go nowhere - that's what I tend to do with these kinds of things. However, my hope is that I'll actually dedicate myself and develop this into something excellent.
Why a blog? Well, it's not an uncommon thing for introverts to do, but it actually surprises me that INTJ blogs in particular are so widespread. I didn't expect myself to jump on the bandwagon. (I'm typically the one running at full speed away from a bandwagon.) I suppose that the rarity of INTJs makes them search for fellowship. I can see that, I suppose. I can't say I understand it. Well, I can, but I'll be lying.
My reasons for starting a blog were in no part a quest for community. *throws up* I started it because I realized that my mind is unique, and perhaps it piques the curiosities of some. Really, this blog is for the readers' benefit, a gracious gift from me.
I promise I'm going to try to tone down the arrogance.
Another reason, a hope I have, is that perhaps I may defy a few stereotypes about my personality type. (I'm all about defying stereotypes.) (And parentheses, apparently.) Keep reading, and I just might surprise you. And myself. Because it would really surprise me if this blog actually survived longer than a month.
I hope to get my best friend on the case. He's an ENFP, and a genius when it comes to design and programming. He'll get this thing looking mighty fine soon enough. More on him later, trust me.
I'm going to bed because I need sleep.
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