How Christians Grieve WellНамуна

Introducing Your Parts

The triune God—Father, Son, Spirit—created humans to exist likewise in a tripartite form—spirit, soul, body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Your spirit is the channel you use to deal with spiritual issues. Because God is Spirit (John 4:24), he communicates to your spirit.

In contrast, your soul defines who you are as a unique person. Consider parts as members

of the soul. Their presence explains why we can sprout a variety of responses to the same topic. For instance, a part of you may nod along as you read on. Another part might exude skepticism.

Having multiple parts within our soul is not pathological. Like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 12:14, “The body is not made up of one part but of many.” The message still rings true if we apply verse 14 to the soul: “The soul is not made up of one part but of many.”

Multiplicity is a trait every person possesses. If the idea of having subpersonalities feels unnerving, however, you are welcome to view it differently—like considering “parts” as different “aspects” of yourself.

There are three categories of parts: exiles, managers, and firefighters. Exiles are hurt parts that carry vulnerable feelings, memories, and beliefs. Examples include grief, sadness, loneliness, fear. Managers and firefighters are both protector parts. Their mission? To shield us from our exiles’ threatening feelings and beliefs. Manager parts accomplish this goal by being proactive in controlling our behavior. Common managers include parts that prompt us to be punctual, in control, intellectual, perfect, to follow rules, blend with the background, please others, police our looks, and follow religious rules.

Firefighter parts will try to distract us from pain using benign activities like sleeping, lulling us with entertainment, or binging on ice cream. If these tactics fail to soothe us, they will up the ante and resort to more destructive acts. Cutting, getting intoxicated, driving recklessly, and suicide are examples of more dangerous firefighter activities.

The richness of our internal world explains why David praised God for making him “wonderfully complex” (Psalm 139:14 NLT). Let’s join him as we meditate on today’s Scriptures.