Stuck in the Middle with You

A Christian Podcast Central Classic Podcast

Jefferson Drexler:
Hello, and welcome back to Real Stuff My Dad Says, the podcast that actually features, well, real stuff my dad says. No, this doesn’t have anything to do with the Twitter feed that you may have seen, or even the sitcom that stared Will Shatner, that was really really funny with some kind of crazy off the wall stuff that somebody’s dad might have said, but no, this is actually real stuff that my dad has told me over the years, that actually are real pearls of wisdom. I’m here with my dad. I’m Jefferson Drexler, my dad is Rod, how you doing today, dad?

Rod Drexler:
I’m doing great.

Jefferson Drexler:
And dad today, we’re talking about the NFL, surprise, surprise.

Rod Drexler:
Hmm (affirmative).

Jefferson Drexler:
Dad and I like to talk about sports. I will say to our listeners that dad and I have not always had the best of the best of relationships, but there was a time that when things were really fractured, I was really blowing off all of dad’s dadism, but it was talking about sports that helped start to bridge that gap. So if we to tend to talk about sports a lot, I’m sorry, but you’ll find you’re doing it with your kids too someday, probably.

Jefferson Drexler:
But anyways, off that side note, dad, I was looking at an article written from back in November. It was written by AOL’s sports calling us Dave Whitley. David Whitley wrote an article talking about super bowl quarterback, Colin Kaepernick.

Rod Drexler:
Okay.

Jefferson Drexler:
And not just Kaepernick, but Kaepernick’s arms.

Rod Drexler:
Oh yeah, yeah.

Jefferson Drexler:
And not the accuracy, not the length of throwing, but rather the art.

Rod Drexler:
Yes.

Jefferson Drexler:
The tattoo art that is all over Kaepernick’s arms. And basically what the colonist was saying was that got it. It used to be that we could look to our NFL quarterbacks as being the model citizens, the CEOs of the NFL and even our culture. And there’s no way that a CEO would have arms like that. In fact, it’s people that are escaping living with, there’s people that are out on parole that have arms like that.

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
And so, what on earth are we doing? As you and I were talking about it, dad, a dadism that popped up was something you say, “Hey, everyone sees themselves in the middle.”

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
This author saw him being in the middle of right, right in the sweet spot of what is correct by saying, “Look, people who we respect, people who are CEO level, as far as character and leaders, they don’t have tattoos.”

Rod Drexler:
At least that we can see.

Jefferson Drexler:
At least that we can see. Yeah, in his article he said, “Yeah, it’s okay for some of, you know, Roethlisberger or there’re other players that have tattoos that are hidden when they put their jerseys on, but people who are valuable leaders should not have visible tattoos.” And he thought he was right in the middle. And dad, tell me about this middle you’re talking about and tell us, how does this apply outside of the grid iron?

Rod Drexler:
Well, this one’s an interesting feel that I think that everybody sees themself as in the middle. I’m a little bit on the compulsive side, is at least that’s what I’ve heard. So I go to call it semi-compulsive. So, what happens is, that there be people that say that I’ll spend too long of a time cleaning something versus what they would normally put towards it. And so you can measure a lot of things like that you see yourself in the middle and I see myself in the middle but they’re actually two different places. And if you’re looking at a church situation, you can have a person that’s a flaming Pentecostal and they think this is the way something should be done and then you’ve that you’re very very conservative person on the other side that says, we shouldn’t even have instruments within the church because this is the way that it should be done. And they see that the way that they view something as at the right way, the middle way, and it you’re stretching it. So those tattoos fall into that category like that.

Rod Drexler:
And honestly, tattoos are completely changed from what they were, 30-40 years ago. And being something that people saw as a different group of people would be wearing tattoos than what we see today. So…

Jefferson Drexler:
Now seeing the middle, being right in middle of what is right, what is true, and having that perspective of yourself that bleeds over into so many other things.

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
I can say, “Hey, I am a good parent. I’m a good dad that teach my kids the real values because I’m not working 60-65 hours a week. I’m actually taking a job where I’m going to less, not making as much money, but able to spend much more time with my kids.” There’s another dad saying, “I am in the middle. I’m doing right by my kids. And I’ve got this job that is going to provide what my kids need for their needs right now, for their needs in the future, for their college, because I’m working 60-65 hours. And I’m teaching my kids the value of a dollar and work ethic and what it means to work hard.” Both of those people, can they be right? Can they both reside in the middle? Can they both be great dads?

Rod Drexler:
I’m not sure what the right and wrong is of that but they certainly see their value system as the important issue and I think that even sometimes again, when we get back to the bottom line to all this, it’s communication with it, and so we were trying to come up with how to communicate with people. And when we’re trying to see ourselves in the middle, we got to look at the way that they see themselves. What do they see is important and then to move from there.

Rod Drexler:
If somebody sees it, working 80 hours a week is sending their children to private school and that’s really important, because they really got to get a good education. I can understand that and that makes sense to me, but I also see the importance of spending that time with your children, that what happens is that they learn a lot more from you when you’re in front of them than they are when you’re paying somebody else to train them. So…

Jefferson Drexler:
Now, what about, I mean, what are some other life situations where you see one person saying they’re in the middle, another person saying they’re in the middle…

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
They’re saying the same words.

Rod Drexler:
Right, right.

Jefferson Drexler:
But they have totally different meanings and then those two conversations, those two worlds, those two definitions come into conflict with one another?

Rod Drexler:
Yes. I’ve been doing some Bible studies here for the last couple of years and it seemed like they used this middle conversation more than anything else, because we’ll talk about worship and you’ll say, “Well, what is worship?” Last week at church, they used the word, “We’re going to sing some songs.” And they say, “Okay, is it singing songs or is it worship?” Okay, and it depends on your view of that. Whatever you think is [inaudible 00:06:54], if you think church should be a half hour long, message a half hour long, that’s what you see is the cutoff point, the middle. And if you see somebody that says, “I like a three hour church service, because I really enjoy it. And in fact, I usually stay through a second time, at least the second time through worship, because it’s so important.”

Rod Drexler:
They see that is what people should do or that they are the that’s in the middle. And so when you’re looking at so much of life, you’re trying to measure what is the middle and that’s where the surveys are constantly going on. And I don’t know if you’ve ever done that or not, but you pick up a magazine and it says, “Oh, a survey was taken on this”, and you want to look to see if you are in the middle, if you’re in the right place. That you’re thinking is along lines with everybody else’s thinking. And so, that’s where I see this middle is an area of just where people see that they should be or where somebody else is kind of, “Oh, just pushing it a little bit to who far, if they do something more than me.” If my wife says, “Hey, so and so clean their rain gutters” you know what I’ll say is, well that person’s out of control. Where if I’m cleaning my rain gutters, the neighbor’s saying, “That guy’s out of control.”

Rod Drexler:
It’s there, there’s just a looking at yourself in the middle what you think is important. And if you think it’s important, is that the same thing that’s important to everybody? And when you’re looking at a situation with God, you’re saying, “God said this, is this what I should be doing?” And I think that what happens is that we need to find ourselves in the middle of what God wants for us.

Jefferson Drexler:
Now you mentioned polls.

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
One of the most important polls, at least here in America, happens every four years.

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
Not the Olympics.

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
But our presidential election. Now, the last several presidential elections have come down to a margin of like, you’re talking about the middle, we’re talking a 52% to 48% as far as American voters go with. And yet somehow, whether the Democrats win or the Republicans win, you got half or nearly half of the population saying, “Oh, our country’s headed to hell in a handbag right now”, because we’re looking at going, “Wait a minute. I thought I was in the middle.”

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
Well, if my beliefs and my convictions are in the middle, surely somebody cheated because my middle is also right.

Rod Drexler:
Yes.

Jefferson Drexler:
So how do we deal with our neighbors? How do we deal with the people that we come in contact with on a daily basis? When you’re looking at life going, “No, no, I’ve done my research, I’ve searched my heart and I’ve looked at scripture, I know what the middle is. I know what right is. And you don’t believe what I believe.” What do you do there?

Rod Drexler:
Well, then you know that they’re not in the right place with because they’re not in the middle. And it’s laughable, I enjoy it because I always see myself in there. And when I’m talking with people, I see them use this term all the time, whether they mean to use it or not, they’ll tell you a story what somebody did and they just can’t believe somebody would do something like that, and I’m going, “Well, how far would you push it?” You know, “How far would you do something like that?”, that would be acceptable but not hanging out there too far.

Rod Drexler:
And so, I think that let’s go back to the tattoos, for example, I ran into a guy a while back at an angel game and he was just covered in tattoo and they were all one color though. They really looked good. I mean, his whole body was covered. And so, I said to him, “How much money he got invested in that?” It’s just a conversation with the guy. And he says, well, he is got about $6,000 and I’m going, oh gosh. It looks good, I want you to know that it really looks good. But to me, if I had $6,000, I don’t think I would spend it that way, but to him, the value of what was in the middle was is that this was more important than anything else. And so, that’s how people make decisions about what they purchase, what they do in life, the debt that they have or anything else, because they see that I got to have this so that I can be in the middle.

Rod Drexler:
And so it’s again, evaluating. I think that we need to evaluate ourselves on a regular basis to see where we’re at. And again, I believe that we also need to have other people around us to help us to do evaluations, if not, then we will just see ourselves in the middle. And sometimes we need another person’s point of view so that we can see if we’re leaning too far, one way or the other.

Jefferson Drexler:
Now, if we do go too far of extremes on some circumstances, there’s harmless, on others, you can actually end up doing harm to people. I’m reminded of a scenario and this is, forgive me for the analogy but kids were out playing in the backyard and we own a couple of dogs and one of the boys came inside and after we call them all in, and everywhere he went, he’s like, “Dad, you stink”, and then, “Mom, our kitchen stinks. What are you cooking tonight? It stinks. Everything stinks.”

Jefferson Drexler:
Well, the kid had stepped on a landmine that the dog left behind, he’s carrying around the poo on his shoe. He’s the one who stinks.

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
But his perspective, see, he thought that he was in the middle.

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
He thought that he was the one that was right. And yet, and he’s actually the one that stunk the high heaven.

Rod Drexler:
Yeah. I think he actually was ripe.

Jefferson Drexler:
And so, I mean, in real life, we often have this where we can go around to people and say, “Dude, you’re taking this too far.”

Rod Drexler:
Right.

Jefferson Drexler:
“Or you’re not looking at this correctly.” And really we’re the ones that are saddled with the wrong perspective.

Rod Drexler:
Right. And, I was just thinking about the way that I drive. And if I do something wrong when I’m driving, I’m thinking that somebody comes into my lane or something like that. What I normally think is, I own the real estate underneath my car, no matter where that car is, I own that real estate and you’re wrong for invading it. So you may see that as somebody’s coming to your middle, because you wouldn’t do that but that’s a story for another time, I think. But again, whenever I’m going through a teaching on something and I can start to see how something fits into the middle, and I can watch the people in the room. And I can see if they think this is too far to stretch something or if a person is saying, “No, no, we need to stretch it more.” If you’re going to walk with God, to the depth that you really need to, these are the ways you need to do it.

Rod Drexler:
And they’ll have their own plan of how that needs to take place. And it could be a good plan, but doesn’t have to always be the great plan. But my funny part about it is, is that they always see their middle is the true middle and I guess that’s the reason we need a north star, to evaluate those things off.

Jefferson Drexler:
Well, dad, thank you so much. And as we all look at ourselves and we take a hard look in the mirror and we say, “Yeah, I’m in the middle, I’m on the right path.” As you said, I guess it’s so critical to have other people around you who can speak truthfully into your life and say, “Nah, you might be swinging too far left. Nah, you might be swinging far right.” Let’s look at what the Bible says that God’s heart really truly is for us and what type of decisions we should be making.

Rod Drexler:
Yep. Balance.

Jefferson Drexler:
Yeah. Well dad, thank you so much. And thank you for listening. If you like what you hear, go to our website realstuffmydadsays.com or check us out on the E-Squared podcast network, that’s at [e2network.net 00:14:59]. You’re going to find a whole bunch of other podcasts like ours. And if you like ours, you’re going to love these other ones. If you think that we’re just a bunch of Nimrods talking on circles, well, then you’re going to like this other stuff that we got, because some really great teaching going on over at the network. But anyways, encourage you to stop by there and leave some comments and let us know what you think.

Jefferson Drexler:
My name’s Jefferson Drexler again here with my dad. Dad, thank you so much for week after week joining us with your real stuff that you say. And again, thanks for listening. Like I always say, and like my kids always say, “Hey, I’m just trying to help.” We’ll see you next week.