Two Faces, One Head

One of the hardest slaps to humanity has to be the face of hypocrisy.

Is it any wonder that an intense sense of disgust and betrayal wells up within us when one of our heroes shows him- or herself to be the opposite of what we believed that person to be?

Or how about when someone with direct authority over us-- parent, boss, peace officer, lawmaker-- commands from a "do as I say, not as I do" platform? Doesn't exactly make for the warm-and-fuzzies.

If a religious leader shows their ugly private side after years of public piety, forget about it. Better to just crawl under a rock and die if you are that person, because there's little hope that you will ever find restoration in the eyes of those who once followed you.

The absolute WORST offenders, however, rarely get dealt with. Their hypocrisy just continues on unfettered and unchecked, for what seems like ages until, finally, one day, they look in the mirror- and there we are. You, and me. We are really no different.

We want so badly to believe that we are above hypocrisy, but we're not. The sooner we can accept that, then the more likely we will be to extend grace and mercy to the next person who breaks our heart, shatters our faith, or causes us to shake our heads in disgust. I'm not saying it's easy; it's much easier to point to the flaws and failures of someone else and ignore our own. After all, if we are human, then we are just as two-faced, fake, broken and flawed on any given day as the next person, hoping at best to make some progress towards being a little bit better, a little bit kinder, a little bit more put together and well-adjusted. It's not until we let a light of truth shine in on our own mess that we find the humility to start cleaning up and moving forward.