Dale Cresap's blog

Do you enjoy giving gifts? Do you find it rewarding to be thoughtful and generous? Are you familiar with the gift-giving dilemma of what do you get for the person who has everything? Do you see how this question applies to gifts that you would give me to an extreme degree? For I created all things. Yet I have told you what is on my list. The thing I want most from you is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. Have you seen these qualities in people and found them to be attractive? Yet they come at a cost. Do you know anyone you would describe this way that didn’t suffer to get it?

Have you heard the saying, ‘united we stand and divided we fall’? Are you aware that you live in a culture in which intense individualism is accepted as normal? Can you see the advantages of individualism? Can you see the drawbacks? If you pursue individualism without also pursuing community you will end up alone, alienated and isolated. You get to choose your community, and some are not for you, but this is not an excuse for rejecting all associations. So what are you passionate about? What cause inspires you? With whom will you stand united, and for what cause?

You have material needs, so you need a source of income, and this typically means a job. So a job can provide you with an income, but it does more than this. A job also provides you with an opportunity to serve; to provide a useful service for your employer or customers. So your income is created out of the value you create. Which do you think is more important? Does the Bible speak more highly of acquiring money or being a servant? Since your job performs both functions, you have the choice of the perspective you take and how you prioritize them.

Do you like to play games? Do you like to win? That is the objective of structured competition, and giving your best makes the game more enjoyable whether you win or lose. Do you like to wrestle with me? The Bible is full of stories of people who did. These encounters were always transformative encounters for them. If you wrestled with me would you want to win? What would this even look like? Why would you want to engage in a contest in which you knew you wouldn’t emerge victorious?

Do you find that believers in general have a reputation with those who are outside the faith? In your experience is this a positive or negative image? In times past was it assumed that someone who practiced the faith had character and integrity more than those who did not? Do you see a trend in the reputation of believers from the culture at large? If their standing is declining there could be more than one explanation. Christians like the explanation that the world around them is in decline and that depravity and darkness will not tolerate the light. But is there another possibility?

Do you know that you have a true self and a false self? You can look at people who gauge their worth by their money and possessions, and you know this is a false way of being. Do you rise above this to think that you are your achievements, skills, and credentials? This is a higher expression, but is it the real you? You see insecure people clinging to their titles, and rightly suspect that they would be devastated without them. If you let go of these things what is left? When you were born you had none of these things. Did you have an identity then?

Are you a pacifist? There are few who identify with this label, even in the church, but there are plenty of verses to support this position, such as, resist not evil, and turn the other cheek. Are you an armchair pacifist because you live in a nation at peace with a low crime rate and you are not forced into a moral dilemma about the use of force because others defend and secure you? Do you realize what a blessing this is? Like many things, being a pacifist is not real until it has been put to the test. Believers can land on both sides of this issue with a clear conscience.

Are you cynical? This is no compliment, and people of good faith and conscience strive to avoid earning this distinction. Do you believe in sin nature? This is also expressed as original sin, and this is one of the most widely accepted doctrines of the Christian faith. If one is true and the other is an undesirable trait, then what is the difference? Don’t they appear to be more similar than different? Can you hold the doctrine of original sin without using it for the broad scale condemnation of the human race? Can you look for and find redemptive purpose?

Do you stand fast in the liberty in which I have made you free? Do you think of this only as a form of political liberty; the absence of legally imposed restraints? A verse in the same passage tells you not to be entangled again in the yoke of bondage. This suggests that liberty has multiple dimensions. Do you know those who fiercely defend their political liberty that you do not consider to be experiencing true freedom? Would true freedom include emotional freedom that you would not depend on validation, agreement, or confirmation from others? Do you have this? Which is more important?

What are you willing to do to avoid being vulnerable? When you are vulnerable you are at risk of exposure, and your fears and weaknesses are on display, at least to those to whom you are able to confide in. For some this is intolerable and they feel they must present an image of strength and invulnerability, but this is only an illusion. They never have as much control as they would like, and lead small and defended lives as a result. On the other hand, haven’t you observed those who are willing to be vulnerable lead lives of expansion?