Our personality types can put us into an almost hypnotic trance, something I'd call the shadow. We relegate to the shadow those parts of ourselves we don't want to see. What the Enneagram does is it takes a flashlight and it goes into the shadow with you. It says, "Okay, we've got to look around." It helps us embrace the journey inward. And no, it's not going to be comfortable. It is going to be painful because embracing pain isn't something we do well. It's something that we avoid well. But it's important to feel those things as they come up, not analyze them, not try and figure them out.  Actually just let them be what they are. Let the beautiful things be beautiful and let the painful things be what they are. 

In today's episode, Brian Hardin talks about his journey through the lens of a Five.  He shares how using the Enneagram as a tool not only gives language to and expands our understanding of each other and of ourselves but also how it helps us pull back the curtain to shed the façade of our personality and find our true self.   

Though best known for founding Daily Audio Bible, the revolutionary Scripture podcast, downloaded over 55 million times, Brian Hardin is truly a man of many hats. With his trademark soul patch of whiskers and wisps of hair framing his face, the Nashville creative rose to recognition throughout the Christian music industry producing for the legendary likes of Larry Norman to modern radio regulars like Jill Parr and Manic Drive, earning hundreds of album credits and a healthy collection of Grammy and Dove Award nominations. Along the way, he branched out into photography, landing everything from music industry publicity shots to portraits and corporate portfolios, alongside an eye for graphic design that found his work featured in Time, CCM, Christian Retailing and Gaither Homecoming (to name a mere handful). It was from within these extraordinary accomplishments that an unexpected professional blow set Hardin on a path toward restored faith, and eventually, vocational ministry.