I like coffee.
I don’t mind the expensive, name brand stuff. It’s nice. Here’s the thing, you have to see what I mean by coffee. You have to imagine sitting in a booth at a cramped, greasy diner where the food is cooked right there, feet from you. Every sip of coffee in this kind of place is accompanied by the smells of grease smoke and toast. The dark black coffee here is almost strong enough grip a spoon and hold it vertical. This is the moment where magical ingredient comes in. For there, in a small bowl by the counter, rests several sealed cups of half-and-half creamer. What? You didn’t know that half-and-half was a secret ingredient in amazing coffee? I know it might seem funny to imagine that a little plastic container might hold the key to unlocking caffeinated bliss, but I can’t help but wonder how many times we use another kind of “half-and-half” to make an altogether common deception easier to swallow.
I think our “half-and-half” problem is simply this.
You can be happy as long as you think you are better than at least half of the rest of humanity.
Oh, we are slick with our wording. “Well, she is no saint.” or “I wouldn’t say he’s as bad as Hitler or anything.” Please be honest now. Where do you place yourself? Where do you experience this?
Let me see if I can help. Where do you stand compared the world’s population when it comes to: prayer, working hard, being a good person, caring about others, going to church, being hospitable, giving, loving God? … Now, where do you stand compared to the world’s population when it comes to: lying, stealing, lusting, gossiping, pride, selfishness, tolerating abortion, listening to rap music, Harry Potter?
Do you see it? Young and old, we all play this little game. We play because we become deceived. Jeremiah the prophet said, “The human heart is most deceitful and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NLT*) I have grown to accept that experiencing the greatness of God and admitting our pride go hand in hand.
This deceit can be our magical ingredient, our half-and-half. Do you see it? The blacker the coffee is, the more half-and-half we need. That’s the whole trick! With half-and-half around, you can simply control how much coffee you taste. And hey, even if you taste something you don’t really like… at least you aren’t as bad as Hitler or anything.
*New Living Translation of the Bible