Distorted Spirituality: Compartmentalized Living

Searching for Eden
Understanding and navigating our culture’s cries for life

Distorted Spirituality: Compartmentalized Living
The story of Jacob

Compartmentalized Living = a way of life in which we intentionally or unintentionally create compartments/areas where we attempt to make life work on our own apart from the true God.

What might compartmentalized living look like?
***We usually build compartments around the areas where our greatest fears or hurts lie
• Fear of failure
• Fear of rejection
• Identity & value confusion
• Relational pain
• Emotional pain & confusion
• Others…

Where does compartmentalized living come from?
We falsely believe that God is weak…so we must help Him
– Where do you struggle to trust God’s power? How does this struggle manifest itself for you?

We falsely believe that God is incompetent…so we can’t trust Him.
“Our commitment to Jesus can stand on no other foundation than a recognition that he is the one who knows the truth about our lives and our universe. It is not possible to trust Jesus, or anyone else, in matters where we do not believe him to be competent…

“Here is a profoundly significant fact: In our culture, among Christians and non-Christians alike, Jesus Christ is automatically disassociated from brilliance or intellectual capacity. Not one in a thousand will spontaneously think of him in conjunction with words such as well-informed, brilliant, or smart…Would you be able to trust your life to such a person?”
-Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

Where do you struggle to trust God’s competence?

We falsely believe that God is irrelevant…so we are on our own in His absence.
Irrelevant = disconnected from the matter at hand…

How do we move beyond compartmentalized living?
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He reached a certain place and spent the night there because the sun had set. He took one of the stones from the place, put it there at his head, and lay down in that place. And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground with its top reaching heaven, and God's angels were going up and down on it. The Lord was standing there beside him, saying, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your offspring the land that you are now sleeping on. Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out toward the west, the east, the north, and the south.

All the peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. Look, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven." Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it and named the place Bethel, though previously the city was named Luz.

Then Jacob made a vow: "If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, if He provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God's house, and I will give to You a tenth of all that You give me."

-Genesis 28:10-22

How do we move beyond compartmentalized living?
We allow ourselves to be shepherded by God & others in the pursuit of seeing God & life clearly
– When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." He was afraid and said, "What an awesome place this is! This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven."
– -Gen. 28:16-17

We set up markers to remind us of reality
-Early in the morning Jacob took the stone that was near his head and set it up as a marker. He poured oil on top of it and named the place Bethel, though previously the city was named Luz.
-Gen. 28:18-19

We dare to live in line with reality
-Then Jacob made a vow: "If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, if He provides me with food to eat and clothing to wear, and if I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord will be my God. This stone that I have set up as a marker will be God's house, and I will give to You a tenth of all that You give me."
-Gen. 28:20-22
We recognize that change is slow
Jacob had many re-lapses

So will we…but there is grace!!!