Stuck In The Middle

Why do people act like they do?

I wish I had ten dollars every time I thought that, said it or heard someone else say it. If I did, I could probably retire somewhere warm, wet and beachy.

It amazes me when I see people who know better acting stupid. They make choices and do things to hurt themselves and the ones they love. And they’re the only ones who don’t see it!

How pathetic. And yet I just described every one of us.

You know and I know it’s true. Vainly we hope that no one else suspects. Yet deep down in our hearts we know. We are all hypocrites.

There. I said it. Hypocrites. Judging others with rules we don’t intend to keep.

Our predicament reminds me of the old Gerry Rafferty song, “Stuck in the Middle With You.” Do you remember it? “Stealers Wheel” recorded it back in the 1970s. The lyrics went, “Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, Here I am, Stuck in the middle with you.”

That’s us! We’re surrounded by people just like us. And we don’t like it.

Author C. S. Lewis is reported to have said, "People are good at expecting others to live in a manner that they are not willing to live themselves." Ouch. That hurts.

Well, hold it right there for just a minute. If everyone does it, what’s the problem?

The problem is we’re blind to our own hypocrisy and complain about everyone else’s!

We need someone to slap us up side our head and say, “Doctor, heal yourself! If you’re so good at diagnosing other people’s problems, why can’t you see your own?” Indeed.

What’s the answer?

Listen to Jesus. He said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye. How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.’”

He nailed us, didn’t he? We’re super speck inspectors. Nit picking other’s failures and ignoring our own.

The problem is our unforgiving hearts. We’re all good at giving ourselves excuses but not allowing them for anyone else. We expect God to forgive us but we don’t offer others the forgiveness we think we deserve—even though they are just as deserving.

Face it. We’re all a mess of mistakes. Without God’s mercy we’re sunk. You can’t be good enough for even your own standards and you know it. It’s just a show. Inside you know.

So what should we do? Jesus said that we should first pay attention to our own shortcomings. That means humble ourselves and admit we make mistakes.

Turning away from the sin you love and asking God to forgive you is the way to remove the plank. Then when you experience his wonderful forgiveness through Jesus Christ, you can offer that same forgiveness to others who so desperately need it.

This simple prescription from Jesus will go a long way toward healing what’s wrong in our relationships. But as long as we think we know better, we’ll still be stuck in the middle of the clowns, the jokers and the hypocrites.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!