Chandra in the Middle

I was watching "Malcolm in the Middle" the other evening... that show is growing on me. I used to not "get it" at all, but now I think I'm starting to appreciate it. Lois still scares/annoys me, though. It's probably a similarity in personalities thing.

This particular episode featured Lois tangling with a cop after she refuses to give him the unspoken police "discount" of 100% off on his snacks at the Lucky Aide. As she leaves the parking lot after her shift, the cop pulls her over and gives her a ticket for reckless driving. Lois decides to fight it all the way, because she knows that she's right. RIGHT, do you hear me?!?

Unfortunately for Lois and her perfect record of being right, Malcolm finds a video that shows that she did cut off another driver and that she is indeed, WRONG. When confronted, she freaks out, and continues to proclaim her innocence. The boys are now completely confused, because after getting over the initial shock of Lois being wrong, they now have to figure out what it means that she still claims to be right, even with irrefutable evidence to the contrary.

Hal chases her down, and after some shouting, she starts to waver. She still says she is RIGHT and that there is something WRONG with the evidence. But Hal convinces her to agree to go to traffic school and accept the possibility that she is, for once, wrong. He pats her on the back as she breaks down, telling her that she is "So amazing... so beautiful... so WRONG!" with a voice full of wonder at this miraculous event.

Lois becomes "broken," as Malcolm puts it, and is easy to get along with, as well as willing to accept the possiblility that it was she who left the milk out or made the mess, etc. It's spooky, but nice to see Lois not screaming for once.

As I was sitting on the couch (and here comes the spiritual significance, so watch out), and watching Lois surrender the need to be always RIGHT and in charge, I felt like God was saying, "Let me hold you while you break down. Let me tell you that I love you and that you are so beautiful and so WRONG. Let me be in charge and you can just rest in my sovereignty and presence."

It was then that I realized how much I hold on to being RIGHT all the time. I fail to allow for mistakes in planning on my part because I don't trust him to be there when everything doesn't go according to plan (and does it ever?). I take the entire burden of whatever I'm trying to work with/on (family, friends, church, work, etc.) and refuse to let go to other people, much less to God! And that's why I, like Lois, am always angry. Despite my best efforts and planning, despite the fact that I am RIGHT about the way things should be, things get messy. I'm frustrated and exhausted from constantly trying to put the universe in order and failing miserably.

The analogy does break down at this point, because it turns out that there's another surveillance camera that shows the incident from another angle. That driver that had to brake to avoid Lois as she pulled onto the road? He was making an illegal U-turn and came to a squealing halt not because she was in his way, but because he was in hers.

It was a funny episode, especially since Lois ends up in jail because of Francis's 16 or so unpaid parking tickets. Their phone conversation is hilarious as always, as are Francis's attempts at making money to pay her back, which land him in a wheelchair and body cast. But underneath the clever humor lurked a truth that I'm not doing well at facing.

Even if there were a tape somewhere that would show how RIGHT I've been in all the grudges I've held, all the minutae that I've so stubbornly clung to, what good would it do me? It wouldn't help my lack of trust in God or change my habits. It would just make me more miserable. Seeing the knowledge of this (or perhaps just wanting to keep intact this precious instance of Lois being WRONG), father and sons stand united to destroy the new evidence and leave Lois blissfully ignorant.

Like I said, the analogy breaks down (they all do, at some point)... but I'm still amused to find God using a sitcom to reach me. I think it may be a sign that I do too much TV watching and not enough Bible reading!