The 10/40 window is an evangelical Christian missions term made popular I don’t know when, but it refers to strip of area between latitude 10 and 40, where the majority of the world’s population lives and apparently a majority of unreached people groups reside.
The Johari window is a model used to understand self-awareness and self-disclosure, used to graphically represent a person’s knowledge about themself compared to OTHERS’ knowledge of them.
Wouldn’t be interesting if missionaries were driven to reach both?
Not an easy ambition, especially for me. I hate sharing about myself. It always made me feel bleedingly self-conscious when I had to share about who I am and where I grew up and what my likes and dislikes were. Before it made me uncomfortable because I had to explain about Haiti and try to put into words answers to questions that really had no answers, at least not in the context I was answering them. It was exhausting. Now when I have to share about myself… I usually just say I’m from Idaho. Which deters difficult questions, but then there’s a huge gaping hole in the knowledge people have of me. If we talk more in depth eventually I’ll try to explain my story in more detail.
Blah blah blah. That’s not the point of what I’m writing, but I’ll probably have to go into that in more depth later.
The point is, well, I just don’t like talking about myself. That’s just the way it is. There are probably several ways to overcome that. But what I do do naturally is write. A lot. I journal extensively. If for whatever reason someone’s interested in knowing me better, they should read what I write. That’s not an excuse. I’ll talk if I’m forced to. But why be forced to express myself in a way that doesn’t come naturally? I like writing. It structures and gathers my thoughts in a way speaking doesn’t. I can go back to my thought process and relive it after I’ve written it. And writing isn’t intrusive. When I write someone they can choose when and where they’re going to read it – they can do it at their own convenience. I like writing. And I like thinking that I’m in some way making my more personal thoughts available in a way that people can read as they please. It’s there if it wants to be known.
It’s been my intention for a long time to start writing more. At least getting it out there, so it can be read. More regularly. I always had the intention to back-post things I’ve written. But I never take the time to do that. So I’m going to start fresh. I’ll probably back-post things as they come to me. But I’m going to start just by writing and keeping things fresh.
So. That’s that. Here’s a shot at reaching both the 10/40 window and the Johari window.
