Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!
On a relative scale, creation is something for which we have little knowledge and even less appreciation for. When we take the time to be still and comprehend the genius, the vastness, and the beauty of God’s handiwork, we only begin to scratch the surface of Who God is in all of His glory.
The complexity and ability of the human mind in particular is certainly one of His greatest displays of Himself. The ability of the brain to think with all of its implications such as communicating, problem solving, and holding onto memories, is in fact, mind boggling.
Another fascinating thing that the mind can do is compartmentalization. What is it? Compartmentalization is a person’s ability to actively forget information for a period of time. Put another way, it is if a person takes information that has been received and places it in a box in their mind, maybe better described as a vault, with the purpose of keeping that information out of the daily thought processes of the person’s mind. I’m not going to get further into the weeds on how exactly that works, but you know it is true, and some people are better than others at this, but all have this incredible ability built into our amazing minds.
So, what kinds of things may we choose to compartmentalize? We may choose to compartmentalize painful memories. This can be a great blessing because painful memories running free in our daily course of thinking might hinder us from functioning in a healthy way. Or we may choose to compartmentalize anxieties that would be associated with a future event. Again, this can be a blessing.
But there are also instances of choosing to compartmentalize, that are not helpful to us. Think of financial obligations that we do not want to face. Some people get additional help with avoiding financial obligations by not opening the envelope with the billing notice inside of it. It is as if not opening the envelope means they do not yet owe the money.
And then there are the times when a person receives the most important information in the world and chooses to stuff that information into the compartmentalization vault, so they do not have to think about it. Paul describes this horrible use of an amazing mind in Romans 1:18-23:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. These people suppress the truth, or compartmentalize it, so they don’t have to think about what God demands of them- thankfulness, worship, honor, and obedience.
But what about Christians? Do Christians suppress the truth? Well, not in the same way as non-believers (rejecting the gospel in unrighteousness), but I do believe that Christians also choose to compartmentalize truth – in unfaithfulness. I’ll give you several examples but first I’ll put in bold letters right here: I know these things because I do these things, and I suspect that you are no different.
I am guilty of compartmentalizing things that are generally unpleasant to think about, such as people who are starving in other parts of the world. In other words, we are uncomfortable with the fact that this is a fallen world and the pain and suffering that is continually taking place is ugly. I don’t want to look at that. This is the response of a person that has a stunted Christian worldview. The fact is that we have been given the Creation mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20 ), and those mandates demand that we care about, even love, every person on the planet. Furthermore, in order to obey these mandates, we must be a people that makes efforts to understand the times that we live in (1 Chronicles 12:32). Even selfishly, if you want to preserve and prosper your own family, you must understand the world we live in. You must be able to see the opportunities for the gospel as well as the potential attacks from the wicked one. 1 Peter: 5:8 says, Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
There is also a practical side to being actively engaged understanding the world we live in. God’s economy is one of sowing and reaping and if we are not sowing seeds to become wise, we will suffer the consequences of a damaged crop. For example, there is a declining birth rate in America. So, you say, I have 4 kids and that has nothing to do with me. Not true. Lower birth rates are leading to fewer future workers, which means fewer taxes for Social Security and fewer heath care workers in the future. Who will take care of you in your old age?
What about the ungodly teaching in the public schools? No problem for you because you are homeschooling? Do you not see that more than 90% of the kids in America that attend and are being taught by the public schools will one day be in the majority of both private and government leadership- running companies and the country in which your children are going to be living? Be sober minded, says Peter.
So, maybe you say, “I already am very involved with doing certain things for the Lord and I have a very busy life outside of church stuff, so I don’t have the time or energy to do anything else, including thinking about any more Kingdom things.” Yes, that is exactly the problem. Who can fit into their lives the thinking and doing and seeking the Kingdom of God when we have so many other things to do? We are already so busy enjoying the blessings that He has bestowed on us that doing more would change our lifestyle.
Yes, it might just do that. It might just threaten the life that we have created for ourselves; a life that has a comfortable level of serving God and enjoying the things that have no eternal value. A life that suppresses truth in unfaithfulness. A life that compartmentalizes information that would threaten our personal world.
And the result of this worldly, comfortable Christianity? We have lost the culture. Too little salt, too little light, for too long.
OK, so I think I have made my best effort to “stir the pot.” I have raised a number of questions to which I provided no immediate answers; I have not said anything about what we need to do other than take ownership of this sometimes blessing, sometimes curse called compartmentalization.
And that’s where I am going next with this blog. For the last six months, I have been writing about various things in the Christian life including the great need for every Christian to have a proper understanding of sin and the need for every Christian to becoming more like Christ (Sanctification and Holiness).
Going forward, I want to explore what the Bible says about the many important things that instruct us how to live. I believe that the Lord has so much more for us than we seem to have settled for. You see, I don’t think many of us are experiencing what Jesus said He came to do. He said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). He also gave us a command with a promise in Matthew 6:33- “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you”.
There is so much more for us in the heart of God and I think He has told us how to receive it. See you next time.
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Last modified: January 27, 2023
