CloseTheGap

Put it in their heart, not just their hands.

I remember as a child, riding in the car with my grandmother. As we pulled into Pathmark’s parking lot, a gentleman approached her asking for spare change. “No sweetheart, I don’t have any spare change, but I’d be happy to buy something for you inside.” He declined. As he walked off I told grandma I had money I could give him. “No baby, don’t give money to strangers. You don’t know him, or what he might be doing with the money. You could be enabling him, supporting a bad habit.” Until this day I remember that conversation with grandma. “I don’t have any cash, but I’ll buy you..” is often my response. Recently I was in Ghana, sharing thoughts and ideas around giving to Ghanian children. At the end of every idea was a reason the idea might not work. The idea might do more harm than good. It might become a crutch. It might encourage enablement, and entrapment in a system. It might hinder freedom, self sufficiency, and independence. But the more we discussed who the children were and what their life is like, the more we began to think of better ideas. And the more ideas we thought of, the more we closed the gap. The gap in details surrounding the situation. The gap that is too often filled with assumptions and judgment, (which of course widens the gap). I want my giving to go to good use too. And while being 100% certain is slim, our chances increase if we learn to close the gap. We don’t always know what to give. There's often a gap between what we have and what we know. It might be easy for us to put something in someone's hands, but if we close the gap, we'll be able to put it in their heart.