To COMPARTMENTALIZE means to divide into categories. A compartment is a section of a container in which certain items can be kept separate or in isolation from others. Mentally, compartmentalization can be a coping strategy or a defense mechanism that helps us through life. We work from 9-5, then devote our thinking toward family in the evenings. Police officers, fire-fighters, surgeons, soldiers and trauma victims compartmentalize multiple difficult and even horrific situations in order to continue with their lives and duties. Pastors and counselors separate their roles as care-givers from their personal lives…or the sheer number of hospital visits, funerals, and therapy sessions would take their toll. Sometimes we need to compartmentalize.
Paul, had to compartmentalize his life as a born again Believer in Jesus away from his former identity as a persecutor and killer of Christians. To forget what lay behind and press forward to his higher call, he had to shelve both the accolades and the shameful tragedy of his past. (Phil 3) To be a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), David had to filter out his victories and his worshipful life before God, from the blood he’d shed and the crimes he’d committed. Moses had to lift himself away from the guilt of his murderous past to become the Deliverer God chose to rescue Israel from Pharaoh. (Exodus 3-4) Peter had to detach himself from his betrayals of Jesus in order to display his loyalty and go on to shepherd the Church. (John 21) Joseph compartmentalized the treachery of his brothers away from his call to save them. (Genesis 50)
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I was not taught compartmentalization, though I sometimes do it. I’ve been a spaghetti person – every incident was emotionally and mentally mushed together. You can’t take a bite out of one part without tasting the others. The book, “Men are like Waffles, Women are Like Spaghetti.” by Bill and Pam Farrel, surmises that this is a gender difference, but I’ve seen men and women on both sides. There are times when spaghetti thinking has been beneficial, helping me to empathize and understand the inter-related nature of things and people. However compartmentalization would have yielded better results on other occasions. It’s easy for flooding, overwhelm, bitterness and confusion to ensue when we try to address every issue at once. Might it be time to compartmentalize a part of your life that’s been plaguing you? to shelve it and let God deal with it and pick up later…or not?
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