I’m Doug Apple...and my heart is on fire. (Luke 24:32)
“I will NOT be taken advantage of.”
That’s what we say.
“I will not be made to look like a fool. If someone’s going to get the short end of the stick, it’s not going to be me.”
No one wants to get the short end of the stick, but in almost every human interaction you could easily say, “Wait a second. I’m giving more than they are, and I’m getting less.”
The short end of the stick.
It’s hard to imagine Jesus complaining about getting the short end of the stick, which He certainly did when He died for me. So the example of our Lord is to give, to go the extra mile, and to even find joy in it.
But how can we do that? No one wants to feel ripped off or taken advantage of. It’s demeaning, even humiliating if you think about it too much.
Well I have a plan, a new way to look at it that really flips it on its head. I call it Give the Gap. What does that mean?
I’m holding my hand up here in front of my chin. This is how much I think I am getting. Now I’m holding my other hand up to my forehead. This is how much I’m giving, so as you can see, there is a gap between how much I’m giving and how much I’m getting.
The gap is the problem. Marriages have been ruined over the gap. Families have been wrecked; whole wars have been started over that gap.
So what can we do when there’s a gap between how much we are giving versus how much we are getting?
Give the gap. And here’s an example.
A friend of mine wanted to sell his truck. A friend of his wanted to buy it. He told his friend the price, and his friend tried to bargain him down. That made the first man angry because he told his friend the price and his friend didn’t take his price seriously but wanted a lower price. There was a gap between their prices.
I watched as their relationship became seriously damaged over that gap, but it could have been solved if either one of them would have been willing to give the gap.
Both of those men were good Christian men and members of the same church. They both gave a lot of money to their church and other good causes. They were givers! But for whatever reason they didn’t extend their giving ways to this truck deal. Neither one of them wanted to be taken advantage of, and it damaged their friendship.
It could have been avoided if one of them would have been willing to give the gap, and here’s how it works.
You say you want $5,000 for that old truck, and I only think it is worth $4,000. Instead of wrecking the friendship, I can go ahead and pay your full price, and that one-thousand-dollar difference? Instead of feeling cheated, I’m going to GIVE it to you! I’m going to Give the Gap.
Let’s say you are at work and the boss asks you to do something and you don’t think it is your job. Yes, you could start a big brouhaha, or instead you could give the gap…the gap between what you think you should give and what they think you should give. Now instead of it being part of your job, you are giving it as a gift!
The Bible has much to say about giving, like it is better to give than to receive, and “give and it will be given unto you,” God loves a cheerful giver, and even, “go the extra mile.”
Hebrews 13:16 says to do good and share, “for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”
Philippians 2 says we are to have the same attitude of Jesus who, though He was God, humbled Himself to becoming a human, a servant, even dying as a criminal on a cross.
So when we see a gap between what we are giving and what we are getting, we can simply convert that gap into a gift! Our attitude switches from, “I’m getting cheated,” to, “I freely give this as a gift, knowing that God wants me to give, and that when I do give, I will receive back and even more, as Jesus said in Luke 6:38, “pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”
No one wants to be taken advantage of, but everyone is called to give, so when you start to see a gap between what you are getting and what you are giving, instead of getting mad…Give the Gap.
May God bless you today.
I’m Doug Apple.
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