“It was the best of times, the worst of times.” So said Charles Dickens in the opening line of “A Tale of Two Cities.” We could also use those lines today for we live in extremes- weather, politics, education, socio-economics, health.

We even think in extremes when we view ourselves “I am the worst ….” or “I am the best ….” Very rarely do you hear someone say that they, “I am just average.” Of course, most people chuckled to hear the closing lines of Lake Wobegone: “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”

In social psychology, this is known as illusory superiority or positive illusion– the tendency to overestimate one’s positive qualities and capabilities, and to underestimate one’s negative qualities, relative to others.

According to brothers, Chip and Dan Heath, in their latest book release, Switch, our brains are “positive illusion factories.” According to the Heaths: Only 2% of high school seniors believe that their leadership skills are below average. 25% of people believe that they are in the top 1% in their ability to get along with others. 94% of college professors report doing above-average work. People believe that they are at lower risk than peers for heart attacks, cancer, and even food-related illnesses, like salmonella. Even more interesting– people claim that they are more likely than their peers to provide accurate self-assessments! (From: https://decision-wise.com/do-you-suffer-from-the-lake-wobegon-effect/)

When I had my broken wrist, I was no different. There seemed to be a perverse pride in my thinking- This must be the worst break the surgeon has ever seen. Realistically I had to tell myself, “not so, my friend.” Sure. It was a pretty bad break but not one that my experienced surgeon hadn’t seen before.

Or my other disillusioned thinking- I am the fastest, best healer in the world. Again, “not so fast, mon amie”. I healed pretty quickly but certainly not a Star-Trek kind of healing. As is true of most of life, we are not the best or worst but somewhere in the middle.

It occurred to me that these types of extremes happen in our relationship with God. We think we have to be the best moral person in order for us to be noticed by Him and to achieve moral goodness resulting in Heaven. We have to be good people through our actions. And it is completely unattainable.

Or we claim that we are the worst sinner ever and so there is no moral hope for us. Nada. We cannot do anything about it and therefore we pridefully wallow in our self-destruction. So long as nothing can be done about it, we might as well do whatever we please to whomever we want. That lifestyle is bound not to end well.

The thing is- we are neither the best nor the worst.

Have you ever wondered why there were criminals hanging on crosses next to Jesus? I am wondering if at that place of Golgotha was the once-and-for-all extreme example of how God changed our lives and took care of the extremes.

After all, Jesus was the best. He was perfect. Sinless. And he was crucified as if He were the lowest of life. Jesus didn’t deserve to die. He had done nothing wrong. Ever. If anyone deserved moral superiority it was Jesus.

The thief on the cross represented the worst. We do not know the multitude of sins or infractions he had committed but it was enough to have him suffer the cruelest of deaths. Regardless of the totality of his sin, once he was killed, that would be it. Time was up. No remorse. No repentance. No forgiveness. No second chances. At that moment, he was the worst for there was no time left for him to be better. All he could do was realistically recognize his sin and Jesus’ goodness.

“Today you will be with me in paradise,” Jesus tells the criminal (Luke 23:42).

Because of Jesus’ willingness to die on the cross, we have no right to say that we are the best and therefore we deserve Heaven. Nor, can we compete with the criminal and say that we are the worst and therefore do not deserve Heaven.

Jesus took care of the extremes so that we don’t have to. All we have to do is believe.

When we recognize Jesus, we can humbly declare like the thief to his fellow crucified thief, “for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” When we do that, the extremes drop away. We do not have to claw our way to the top of being the best nor do we have to dig entrenchments of self-pity and perverse pride. We can honestly and realistically know our place and be accepted as we are: loved and belonging to God. As such, all people have the opportunity to live in paradise. It is a question of choice and freewill.

I think it also applies to life in the here and now. No one is the best or worst. We are all in the in-between. I think when we understand that there are no extremes, we humbly realize that we are all basically in the same storm. Some people have different types of boats but no one has the best or worst one.

What about you? Are you living with extreme thinking? About yourself? In your interactions with others? With God? The thing is- there is always someone better or worse than our situation. If one has reached the top- athletic ability, intellectual prowess, financial goals- there is always another person coming along who will break the record or reach higher heights. For all the tough breaks and hard times someone might go through, there will always be a worse hard luck story told in response.

Humbly seeing ourselves as God sees us- loving us while we were still sinners (and even as we still are sinners)- keeps us from any superiority or superlatives. We can be realistic about our place in this (and the next) world. It should free us up to treat others as we want to be treated.

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Yet, with God, it can be a time of living without extremes. It can be a really good time.