Dale Cresap's blog

Have you heard of people who are hard to please? This is not meant as a compliment. Do you think it applies to me? You think of me as perfect and holy, and the standard given to you is to be holy as your Father in heaven is holy. Do you struggle with this and fall short? Do you live with a sense of my favor toward you or my displeasure? If people who are hard to please are not gracious and loving, and I am, then this cannot apply to me. Your concept of me will determine the way you live your life.

Does my word speak to you? How else do you learn about me, and the things of my Kingdom? I taught from the scriptures, but I also taught from the natural world. I told my audience to consider the lilies of the field, to consider the ravens, and to consider the grass as illustrations in my spiritual lessons. These things are visible to everyone. Do you consider them? Do you draw the same spiritual lessons from them that I did? The visible world is a testament of truth. One of the most important things you learned was to read written language.

Do you like to go for a walk? Do you prefer to go by yourself or with others? Have you ever gone for a walk with me? Adam and Eve walked with me in the garden, and I taught my disciples while I was in the way with them. Enoch walked with me and never came back, and two of my disciples got a special lesson on the road to Emmaus. So there is a connection in the Bible between motion and communion. Not all who wander are lost, but you can wander with a sense of awareness and intention. Your daily activities require you to move from one place to another.

When you pray do you come to me with a list? You may think of this as an agenda for your prayer time. I’m always happy to see you and take your requests seriously. Do you know that I have intentions for our time together as much as you do? How would you structure your prayer time to follow my agenda instead of, or in addition to, yours? In a conversation each person speaks in turn, alternating with the other party. If only one person speaks it is a monologue rather than a dialogue. Would you like to have a real dialogue with me? It is as easy as alternating speaking and listening.

Do you have a sense of entitlement? Do you have a stronger sense of what is owed to you than your duties toward others? Those who are entitled are grasping and ungrateful. They feel that the resources developed by others are due to them with no humility or appreciation. This attitude is opposite to that of the Son of Man who came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life for others. I called you to follow me, so consider me as your example. It is still more blessed to give than to receive. Do you understand this? Do you know any people with a sense of entitlement? Are they happy?

Do you need to be held? Babies die if deprived of human contact and adults learn to cope, or develop compensation behaviors, but this is an essential human need. What is holding you? Is your hunger for being held satisfied? You have my promise that I hold you in  the palm of my hand. Do you have a conscious and continual awareness of this? For I can hold you in a way that you still feel alone, yet my promise is true that I am with you always, even to the end of the age. My presence with you is an objective spiritual reality.

Have you ever shopped at a clearance sale? Have you ever held one? You might call this a garage sale if you held it, but stores hold clearance sales to move old merchandise to free up display space for new merchandise. You follow the same principle to remove clutter from your home. Have you ever held a spiritual clearance sale? Have you acquired beliefs or practices that no longer serve you even if they were useful at one time? Don’t let you faith practice be dominated by the traditions of your ancestors.

Do you believe in me? Do you live with a sense of destiny? Do you live with the awareness that your life matters in the universal and eternal scheme of events, and that you are connected to a world much larger than yourself, but that your part in it is a significant contribution that only you can make? You can believe in me without being aware of this, but I promised you an abundant life, and this is it. Don’t be discouraged if the answers to these questions are not obvious. Your destiny is something you must seek and find.

Can people be invisible? This is a favorite device of the writers of fairy tales and fantasy, but these are works of fiction. Yet some people are treated with so little regard they might as well be. Have you ever looked at those who serve in important but menial positions only as far as their functional benefit to you? What about those without any job? What about those who do not fit your cultural template for beauty, such as those who are overweight? Yet these are all my children and their essential humanity is no different from yours. Is your vision large enough to see them?

Do you think that proper insight and understanding is all about having the right answers? This is not the first step. You need to start with the right questions. Some questions are indeed frivolous and stupid. What is the advantage of being an expert on a subject that is not meaningful? Answers to the right questions may not come quickly, but there is growth and maturity from living with the questions even if you hold them unanswered. Sometimes you have to live your way into the answers and into a new way of thinking. I promised to guide you into all truth, so keep asking questions.