Trying Not To Compartmentalize Our Spiritual Life

To organize our months, we buy calendars.

 

To keep all our documents in order, we buy filing cabinets.

 

To arrange our pantry, we buy those handy pre-labeled containers.

 

We love to place our lives in neat compartments because, after all, life is more manageable and seems to run smoother when it comes in bite-size pieces. And so we divvy out time for our family, friends, work, exercise, shopping, household chores, and, if time permits, a little fun.

Unfortunately, it's easy to do the same thing with our spiritual life. Some of us do this to cope with an overwhelming schedule. Still, while others simply treat Christianity as just a "Sunday thing." The problem is, as long as we compartmentalize our spiritual life, we're missing out.

 

In fact, when we treat God like yet another category to manage, we've shortchanged our own Maker.

 

To some, the concept of a holistic spiritual life seems radical. It gives God the license to affect every single area of our lives, to have the final say in even the smallest of decisions. Whole-life faith is all-consuming and it can't be contained or slotted. Our relationship with God wasn't intended to be just a section of life—His desire is for us to be consumed with Him in every part of our existence.

 

Jesus wasn't into a segregated faith.

 

When asked what the most important commandment was, He didn't answer, "Love the Lord with whatever part you can offer on Sundays." The cornerstone of our faith—is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (See Mark 12:30). Our Christian walk, exemplified by the love we show, should encompass everything we do. Our love of God should impact everything from the emotions we feel (heart) to our worship (soul) to our private thoughts (mind) to our physical actions (strength).

That means on Wednesday, when patience is running thin, our attitude of thanksgiving is just as important as any day of the week. It means when we're at the mall on Saturday, enjoying a nice afternoon, God's wisdom on how to manage money is just as relevant when shopping.

We were never created to be compartmentalized, much less deal with our spiritual life in the same way.

 

In other words, our body is inseparable from our mind and emotions, which is inseparable from our soul. But for most of us, our physical nature comes first. We naturally wake up in the morning thinking our own thoughts, feeding our own bodies, and living our own lives.

 

How can God possibly fit into every single crevice of our day?

 

A comfortable form of Christianity might tell us to strike a balance between the two: Divvy it up with God. He'll take care of the big things of your life and you manage the rest. Yet, while the God of the universe is certainly able to care for the majors in our lives, He's just as capable with the minors. When we attempt to balance the various areas of life ourselves, giving God access only to parts we see as pertinent to Him, we end up overwhelmed and unsatisfied.

 

The modern concept of balance is that life should be on these scales equally measured out. We will never be able to balance life, but we should seek to live a harmonious life where things fit together. A harmonious life may be 10 percent here, 20 percent there, and 70 percent there. All percentages aside though, the point is that we aren't the CEOs of our own lives. God is—and He's the only one capable of "running" our entire lives. Our spirituality is like a mountain stream in which we aren't the ones guiding the water—we're the ones apart of the out flowing of the water, that is being guided by a stronger source.

 

Embarking on that journey requires giving God free rein to rule in all areas.

 

God isn't worried about if our outfit we are wearing matches our shoes or whether our car is running in tip top shape—the universe is under His command (See Hebrews 11:3). He does, however, care deeply about our every move—even more than we do. We don't have to fall into the trap of handling something on our own because we figure He doesn't have an opinion on what we do or decide. Jesus' life proved that God is passionate about walking with us in even the most "remote" places. That includes our finances, our entertainment choices, our speech, our relationships and every other area in our lives that we may think doesn't matter to Him.