Apples of Gold
Radio Script for August 28, 2008
“I Got Gaps, You Got Gaps”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
There’s a famous scene in the first Rocky movie.
Rocky is talking to Paulie about Paulie’s sister, Adrian.
Paulie says, “I don’t see it. What’s the attraction?”
Rocky says, “I don’t know. She fills gaps, I guess.”
Paulie says, “What gaps?”
Rocky says, “I don’t know. Gaps. She’s got gaps. I got gaps. Together we fill gaps.”
Isn’t that a great way to look at? Meanwhile it sends us all off looking for someone to fill our gaps.
In the old days your options were limited. You had to choose a mate from the few people you ran into.
But now with all these dating sites, you can rip through millions of people in minutes. For example, eHarmony.com has over 15 million registered members. In fact, a lot of them have millions of members. One brags that 60,000 new people sign up every single day.
And it’s scientific. They have sophisticated software to help you find the exact person to fill your gaps.
So shouldn’t the divorce rate be plummeting? You’re no longer stuck with Jim Bob just because he was the only guy in town you liked. Now you can choose from millions. You’d think the marriages today would be stronger than ever.
But that doesn’t seem to be happening. Back in 1980 about 6% of the population was divorced. Today that’s more like 10%.* In America, only 63% of children grow up with both biological parents – the lowest figure in the Western world.**
And while the population is rising, the number of people getting married is falling.
With so many options, why can’t we find the perfect gap filler?
Here’s what I think. No person can do that. There is no one person who can fill your gaps. And you can’t fill someone else’s gaps.
Now I’ve been married for over 20 years, and my wife and I do a good job of filling each other’s gaps – to a degree. But there is no way she can fill all my gaps, and vice versa.
Here is what marriage is good for. In Genesis 2:18 God looked at Adam and said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
So your spouse is designed to be your helper, two people working together to help each other through life.
But what about our gaps? Shouldn’t a spouse fill our gaps?
A spouse can fill some gaps, but honestly, we all have more gaps than any human can fill. To ask someone to do so is to ask the impossible. That’s why so many relationships crash on the shores of “I just needed more.”
So if a person can’t fill my gaps, where can I turn?
I must turn to the Lord. God is the great gap filler.
I still remember when I gave my life to Christ. I literally felt filled up inside. I didn’t even realize that I had an empty feeling. I only noticed it by comparison.
Maybe most people don’t notice that empty feeling, but it’s like a vacuum trying to be filled.
Then as we listen to thousands of love songs and watch romantic movies, we get the idea that what we need to fill the vacuum is true, romantic love – from our soul mate.
Well, that’s sort of the idea, except that it’s really God we are looking for, because only He can fill that vacuum.
Ephesians 1:23 describes Him as the one “who fills everything in every way.”
Ephesians 3:19 talks about being “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
That is how our gaps are truly filled, when they are filled with the fullness of God.
Now listen to this. This is not just some mechanical filling up that God does. There is interactivity, there is communication. This is an actual relationship with God.
The Greek word is “koinonia” which means fellowship, or communion.
First John 1:3 talks about having fellowship with “the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.”
First Corinthians 1:9 says we have been called into fellowship with Jesus. The Amplified Bible says we have “companionship” with Jesus.
Second Corinthians 13:14 talks about “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.”
So, yes, I got gaps, and you got gaps. We all have gaps. And we need a special relationship to fill those gaps. But a relationship with a person just won’t do it.
To fill our deepest gaps we need a real relationship, that koinonia, that communion with the true living God.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
* http://www.divorcemag.com/statistics/statsUS.shtml
** From The State of Our Unions 2005, a report issued by the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University.
© 2008 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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