Nobody Wants a Middle Seat

Nobody wants the middle seat.

Given the choice on an airplane, most of us will take the window or the aisle. The window gives you something to look at and a wall to lean against. The aisle gives you a little freedom and at least the illusion of more space. The middle seat gives you two armrests to negotiate.  

On our recent trip to Oregon to take Grace to college, I was in the middle seat, which wasn’t bad because I wasn’t sitting between two strangers. I was sitting between my wife and my daughter. Acutely aware that our time with our daughter was rapidly changing, being squeezed into that middle seat beside them didn’t feel like much of a sacrifice.

In fact, I wanted to be there. That’s the funny thing about love. Love can change which seat we’re willing to take.

Paul writes to the church in Philippi, “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.”

Which sounds beautiful until you are faced with taking the middle seat or when someone picks a restaurant I don’t like. Or when my children need something and I already planned time for myself. 

Many of the opportunities we have to put someone else first probably won’t feel particularly heroic. Nobody is going to write a biography about the time we let someone merge in front of us or took the inconvenient seat. But maybe that’s where we start in learning the way of Jesus.

A little later, Paul tells us to have the same mind as Christ Jesus. Then he describes Jesus choosing not status or privilege, but humility and service. That’s a much bigger thing than taking the middle seat on your next Southwest flight.

I wonder whether the simple choice of putting someone before ourselves prepares us for the hard sacrifice Jesus models.  And maybe the most surprising thing is that when love is the reason, the middle seat isn’t always such a bad place to be.

With Gratitude,

Rev. Rodney Whitfield
Senior Pastor
Aldersgate UMC